Visakhapatnam: The cyber crime police of Vizag has decided to issue notice to Google India for the second time in six months over false information appearing in its search feature. Cyber crime police were investigating several cases of cyber fraud which was initiated from the results thrown up by the search feature.
Last November, cyber crime police issued a notice to the nodal officer of Google India Private Limited, asking them to come to the office in person on December 4, 2018. The senior security officer of the Google office in Gurgaon received the notice but no one appeared.
Instead, Google India officials informed the police that steps would be taken to rectify the issue. However, the inspector found that allegedly false information was still appearing during Google searches and no modifications had been made.
Police has now decided to issue another notice next week, asking Google India officials to personally come to the police station.
The November 2018 notice stated: “Some online fraudsters have added fake phone numbers with edit option in (the websites of) popular companies, organizations, hotels and banks. We have registered two cases and identified that fake phone numbers are added in Axis Bank contacts and New Sonar Bungalow Hotel in Vizag. We request you to kindly attend before us to discuss certain aspects pertaining to the investigation of online cheating cases."
To this, a Google representative replied, “Spammers and others with negative intent are a problem for consumers, businesses and technology companies that provide local business information. As bad actors change their techniques, Google is continually working on new, better ways to fight fraud and keep the information on its products accurate and up to date. Google uses manual and automated systems to detect spam and fraud. If any institution experiences any issue, they can raise a report through the legal troubleshooting form which will be acted upon by a team of specialists trained in the field of verifying edits and acting on complaints of unlawful and unauthorised content.”
Speaking to DC, cyber crime police inspector V. Gopinath said, “In Google search, the results show fake phone numbers when people search for customer care numbers of several well-known firms. The victims are trapped upon calling these fake numbers.”
