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If you need to find a local business’s phone number, you can type the company’s name into Google and hit the Call button on the Google Maps listing. It’s one of the many powerful uses for Google Maps besides just getting directions. Sure, Google Maps is far from perfect (as anyone who’s found the wrong hours or the incorrect address listed can attest to). But there’s still a certain level of trust that comes with information on the platform. As such, people often trust what they find on Google Maps based on the simple fact that the business is even listed on Google with official-looking photos attached.
Unfortunately, that natural trust people feel toward Google Maps listings might be under threat. According to a post shared by an SEO specialist on LinkedIn, scammers are allegedly using AI-generated images to attach fake phone numbers to legitimate business listings. From there, it looks like the goal is to take advantage of people’s trust by getting them to call the wrong number. (That is, the one in the photo instead of the one on the Google Business Profile.) Instead of reaching the legitimate company they were searching for, the caller would then end up speaking to a scammer.
How to protect yourself from the Google Maps scam
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The LinkedIn report may not be an isolated incident, and a single perpetrator may not be to blame. A quick Google search of our own revealed a May 2026 post on the Google Maps Help forum. The poster warned that multiple accounts seemed to be pulling similar scams across Google Business Profiles and Maps listings. The user found both unauthorized images and incorrect phone numbers, all presumably meant to pull customers away from the legitimate businesses. This lines up with the more than 150 suspicious pics the LinkedIn SEO specialist said the account had posted to U.S. business listings.
We should mention that, like many of these online scammer stories, it’s worth taking everything with a grain or two of salt. (Remember the gas station screw scam from earlier in 2026 that ended up being bogus?) However, since this story was first posted on LinkedIn, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google removed the contributor who’d uploaded the phony photos with fake phone numbers.
Still, it’s important to be cautious. Going forward, treat images on a Google Maps listing separately from legitimate business information. And if you need to call a company, check the phone number on the actual business’s website or in the Google Business Profile’s contact information rather than relying on a number from a user-uploaded image. Feel free to review the FBI’s AI phone scam guidance too, while you’re at it.