If you’ve received a phone call or email that begins with “Hi, I’m calling on behalf of Google…”, you may have been the target of a scam.
Since contact information is listed on your website for current and future patients, you can expect to receive a variety of solicitations from reputable, but also (and more likely) scammers.
While we use multiple strategies to prevent bots from harvesting client contact details, nothing is foolproof.
A common scam these days is orchestrated by those presenting themselves as “Authorized Google My Business Representatives.” There is no such thing. Such scamsters offer to “claim and optimize your Google My Business listing.”
Of course, for a nominal fee.
Don’t fall for it. Google My Business listings are free. And as a Perfect Patients client, we optimize your listing for you. Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to con you.
If you are not sure if something is legitimate or not, then you can always do a quick Google search of the offer plus the word “scam.” Oftentimes, you will see countless listings of people who fell for it and are trying to prevent others from doing the same.
Google also keeps a regularly updated list for consumers to reference here.