How Fraudsters Are Creating Fake Addresses On Google Maps To Defraud Nigerians
In July 2020, Chinedu Nnadi, a graphics designer in the Yaba area of Lagos, searched online for a DHL office in Lagos. He was expecting a package From the US that was supposed to be delivered the day before, but he had gone out and so was unaware whether the delivery was attempted while he was away or not. He decided to go online to get a DHL phone number he could reach to enquire about his package.
When he checked online, he saw a Google Maps result of a DHL office in Ikeja that also had the phone number of the outlet, which he copied out. When he called the number, an operator told him his package had been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances and apologised, informing him that his package had been rescheduled for delivery to be sent at the end of the month. To get his package reassigned as priority delivery, he was required to pay ₦50,200 for customer charge and express delivery. He could then later make a claim officially, and the money could be refunded after an audit. He was sent an OPay digital bank account information which had DHL as the account name, which he duly paid into. Shortly after, he tried to reach DHL again so as to inform them he had made the payment, but the number stopped going through.
“Although I was suspicious that I was given OPay account details, I did not think much of it because I felt digital banks are becoming more acceptable. When I could not reach the number, I went to their website and saw that none of the phone numbers there matched the one that popped up in my google search,” he told Neusroom.
“Looking back, the Google Maps information was what led to the fraud because it provided an address and a phone contact of the business.”
Many rely on Google Maps to get around to their destinations. The map service is also integrated into popular ride-sharing services like Bolt and Uber, which provides a visual representation of the roads from one’s location to the destination. According to statistics from Google Maps, it contains 27.9 million miles of road with local information for more than 80 million places around the world.
One of the other services Google Maps provides is allowing businesses to ‘register’ their location. This is done by mapping an address with contact phone numbers, addresses, pictures and information on the kind of service provided. People who have visited places on the map are also allowed to provide pictures and give reviews.
This is what fraudsters are exploring by creating fake addresses on Google Maps to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians. They add all relevant information to their fake profile, which ultimately gets picked up by the Google Search engine and provided as a result when people enter the query.
Since Google crawls results based on the quality of the SEO, some of these fake addresses and information even appear at the top of Google results, thereby making them appear legitimate.
How the fake address on Google Maps scam works
From Neusroom’s investigation, many of these frauds focus on product or service deliveries that sometimes require upfront payment rather than the ones that expect payment after service.
Neusroom discovered that the fraudsters targeted two notable international courier services: DHL and FedEx. They also created fake Google Map profiles of some notable hotels, particularly in Lagos and Abuja.
The fraudsters create false addresses for notable businesses and then provide fake contact information. They then lay in wait for unsuspecting victims to search for these services online. When they do and see this result, they reach out to them via the phone number that has been provided. One such is a fake DHL address situated at 6, Ajasa St, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. When Neusroom searched for DHL services on Google, the fake DHL address popped out with accompanying pictures of what looked like the interior of a DHL office and a phone number.
In the review section of the address, most of the reviewers complained that they were scammed after they called the number attached to the business. One reviewer claimed he reached out to the number to come and help pick up a package, and after sending money, no one showed up to pick up the package.
Neusroom reached out to the number attached to the fake address. The first thing the male voice at the other end of the call said was to introduce himself as the customer care representative of DHL. This means that despite the bad reviews and comments left by victims, Google Maps has not taken it down.
DHL is not the only service that is being cloned by these fraudsters. A lady on Twitter claimed she searched for FedEx contact and was directed to a Google Maps account. Unaware that it was a fake page, she reached out to the number attached to the location and ended up sending N28,500 for charges to an OPay account. It took her a few days before she realised that she had transacted with a fake page.
To lend credibility to the scheme, these fraudsters sometimes create fliers of courier services or alter already existing ones and slot their own dubious account details into them. Unsuspecting customers then go online, see this information and interact with the business.
Hotels are also commonly targeted by these fraudsters. They use names of popular hotels and copy images from the hotel that they can find online but use their own contact details. When prospective customers reach out to them, they are encouraged to book in advance to get a discount.
Neusroom reached out to Samson Akpan, who posted on Twitter that he fell victim to a similar scam in September 2021. According to him, He was planning to come to Nigeria from Spain for holiday and had planned to stay in Abuja instead of Lagos, where his family’s apartment was.
He said: “I Googled Summerset Hotel and without double-checking reached out to the number attached to it. I ended up paying into an OPay account from my naira account after being promised a 20 per cent discount if I could pay that day. They promised to send my booking information to me via Whatsapp, but I got nothing for days. It was when I doubled check the online information I realised how stupid I was to have fallen for the cheap scam”
Neusroom has sent a message to Google, but no response has been sent yet.
How are fraudsters able to open fraudulent ‘official’ bank accounts?
Many of these fraudsters are exploiting the growing fintech space in Nigeria to perfect their scheme. In the past, opening a bank account requires visiting the banking premise and submitting supporting documents to authenticate the customer’s name, age, picture, fingerprint and address. As banks are becoming more digital, physical presence is becoming less of a requirement to open and operate an account. Some fintechs provide the option of opening a tier 1 account which can be operated without submitting any supporting document. All that is needed is a smartphone, a phone number that can receive an OTP code and an account number will be generated within a couple of minutes.
These digital banks were created to allow for ease of banking and to drive financial inclusion without necessarily going into a banking hall. One can open an account, choose any name and generate a tier 1 account that can carry out a maximum of N50,000 in transactions at once and N300,000 cumulatively in a week. Fraudsters take advantage of this ease to open an account, choose any preferred name (usually a business or company name) and under this guise defraud unsuspecting Nigerians. Victims who see this company or business name attached to an account number erroneously believe it is legitimate and pay money into these accounts. Usually, the fraudsters dispense this money quickly before they are caught by either paying for goods and services or rerouting it to another account. Neusroom put this to the test by opening an account in the name of the Ministry of Justice. Within a few minutes, the process was completed and the account was running to accept a maximum of N50,000. All that was provided was a phone number and a blurry photograph and an account name titled “Ministry of Justice” was opened.
To verify that it was up and running, Neusroom sent money to the Ministry of Justice account and the transaction was successful confirming that the process of opening a fake account could be done in minutes.
By creating an account named Ministry of Justice which could be used dubiously in the wrong person’s hands, it is evident to see how fraudsters devise the same method to create accounts in the name of DHL, FEDEX and other notable companies and businesses which they present to unsuspecting victims to defraud them.
