Hey guys, I am new here so I will tell my story first, if you are uninterested you can skip over this paragraph. I own a small HVAC company, I have been doing SEO for it for the last 10 years. I get all of my new business (non-repeat customer or referrals) from the internet, mainly GMB or organic. My customers are always very happy, but they are lazy and don't leave reviews even when they say that they will and I email them a direct review link with the job receipt. So about a year ago I started leaving myself reviews because all of my competition was doing the same. Their fake reviews were very transparent, so I made mine look real.
Here is how I did it: I clear the cache in Safari on my iPhone. I turn off cellular data. I go to the app carousel and close all apps. I turn off Background App Refresh. Then I drive to a random area and connect to an open Wifi, which is easy to find. I make a new Google account and leave reviews and star ratings for a few different local businesses and then leave a review or star rating for my business. I use a real sounding name, I sometimes use a profile pic, but not always (that looks fake), and I leave realistic reviews.
This has worked very well. About 95% of the reviews that I leave go up immediate. Almost all of those stay up, except for a handful (maybe 5%) that randomly disappear.
Here's my question, over the past week any time I go to make a Google account it asks me for a phone number to verify the account. This has happened a handful of times in the past, but never to this extent. I have tried at least 20 times to make a new account, and it asks for a phone number every time.
So I am wondering if this is just something that Google is doing to reduce spam at the moment? Or if Google is on to me? The only thing I can imagine is that Google might be able to see the MAC address of my phone, but I didn't think that was possible. Any ideas?
Here is how I did it: I clear the cache in Safari on my iPhone. I turn off cellular data. I go to the app carousel and close all apps. I turn off Background App Refresh. Then I drive to a random area and connect to an open Wifi, which is easy to find. I make a new Google account and leave reviews and star ratings for a few different local businesses and then leave a review or star rating for my business. I use a real sounding name, I sometimes use a profile pic, but not always (that looks fake), and I leave realistic reviews.
This has worked very well. About 95% of the reviews that I leave go up immediate. Almost all of those stay up, except for a handful (maybe 5%) that randomly disappear.
Here's my question, over the past week any time I go to make a Google account it asks me for a phone number to verify the account. This has happened a handful of times in the past, but never to this extent. I have tried at least 20 times to make a new account, and it asks for a phone number every time.
So I am wondering if this is just something that Google is doing to reduce spam at the moment? Or if Google is on to me? The only thing I can imagine is that Google might be able to see the MAC address of my phone, but I didn't think that was possible. Any ideas?
