Insider Pages Takes a Stab at Stopping Hijacking

Filed in Local Search by Matt McGee on April 2, 2009 3 Comments

In light of all the Google Maps hijacking reports over the past year, I found this interesting:

insiderpages

(click for larger version)

That’s one of the bits of legalese you see when trying to edit/claim a business listing on Insider Pages. If you didn’t bother clicking to see the full text, it basically says that if you’re screwing around with someone else’s business listing, Insider Pages is entitled to collect $1,000 per violation.

I’ve no doubt that the big time spammers wouldn’t be bothered by something like this; they make $1,000/hour (and more). But if Google would put something like this on its business edits form, maybe up the dollar amount to $10k or $25k, I wonder if that competitor of yours across town might think twice about being an idiot and messing with your business listing.

Today was the first time in forever that I had reason to look at an Insider Pages edit form. Are any other local sites showing warnings like this?

Comments (3)

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  1. Zach says:

    What defines a big time spammer? $1k/hr would strike me that only the top dogs make that, if even

  2. Stever says:

    yes, some spammers are certainly making $1000/hour. Gaz-j, they are not being hired out at that rate, they are doing their own thing and making the money themselves marketing whatever it is they are marketing. But that’s not the point of Matt’s post, so lets not get too distracted by it.

    Beyond setting fines, systems themselves need to be overhauled so as to make it not so easy to hijack others listings.

  3. BTS says:

    As a few people have learned the hard way this has been part of the MerchantCircle Terms of Service for years.

    “MerchantCircle has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof). Additionally, you agree that if you provide false information to obtain access to a MerchantCircle business site that you are not legally entitled to claim, MerchantCircle will be entitled to collect liquidated damages of $1000 per violation or actual damages incurred by MerchantCircle from you”

    It is probably not a cooincidence that the language matches.

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