The Google Business Profile help page on Help protect against fraudulent calls and texts has been updated. It now includes how to identify legitimate texts over WhatsApp and RCS messages, it also updated a lot of the examples of the types of calls and messages you get, plus more.
Google wrote, "To protect your business, you should only respond to communication from Google's verified official accounts:"
- WhatsApp: You can identify the official account by looking for the blue verification checkmark
. The verified WhatsApp account name will appear as “Google Maps” or "Google Maps" followed by your country name, like “Google Maps Indonesia”. Learn more about WhatsApp verified business accounts. - RCS messages: If you have RCS messaging enabled on your Android or iOS mobile device, you can identify messages from official accounts by looking for the blue verification checkmark next to the sender’s name. For RCS messages, the registered business name will appear as “Google.” Learn about RCS chats with registered businesses.
Many of the examples of the types of phone calls you'd get were from the COVID days, such as do you eat inside and such. Those have been replaced with different examples.
It is worth a read if you manage your own business on Google Business Profiles or you manage them for clients. Understanding when a call or text is from Google or from some sort of fraud establishment is important.
Here is a comparison of the before/after changes to this doc, if you want to dig in:
Forum discussion at X.
