Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Manchester firm shut down for pretending to be Google

Biz charged £250 a pop for free Google My Business service

A Brit biz masquerading as Google to "sell" a free business listing service has wound up in the High Court.

Manchester-based Movette falsely represented itself as Google when selling its service to manage the online "Google My Business" listings of its customers.

The company was incorporated in September 2013 and charged a fee of between £199 and £249 for a 12-month contract. The company’s financial records showed it received fees totalling £537,000.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service found Movette had been the subject of a significant volume of complaints to regulatory bodies such as Action Fraud and Trading Standards during its two-and-a-half year trading history.

The probe revealed the company had falsely stated that customers would lose their existing services from Google if payment was not made.

A number of people have previously complained about Movette's fraudulent activity on company review site Trust Pilot.

"I was relentless pursued by this company and eventually paid the bill of nearly £300. I am gutted that I caved in," wrote one.

Another wrote: "Last year I received a call from 'Google' saying they have been looking after my site for a year (which they hadn't) and now was time to pay the yearly fee."

Colin Cronin, investigation supervisor with the Insolvency Service, said: "Movette used deceptive methods to persuade customers to sign up for its service, including stating or implying that it represented or was connected to Google.

"The company then made it difficult for customers to extract themselves from rolling contracts and used debt collection methods which were coercive and intimidatory."

He said the IS is urging any business which is contacted by cold-call and invited to sign up for a Google My Business listing to make full enquiries into the service being offered before entering into any agreement.

"Google My Business is, in fact, a free service which allows businesses to enter and update information with the intention of marketing themselves to users of the search engine." ®

 

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like