Eight red flags when a cold-caller promises you page one of Google

If you run a trade, you will have had the call. Someone you have never dealt with rings the van phone, says your website is not showing on Google or that your listing is about to be removed, and offers to fix it for a fee. Some of these callers are pushy sales reps. Some are fraudsters. Either way you can end up paying for something you did not need, or losing something you already own. We have ordered this list from the line you will hear most often to the one that costs most when it lands, and the last entry is where to report a call once you have had one. Each one comes with what Google, the NCSC, the ICO or GOV.UK actually say, so you can check our working.

1. They guarantee you page one of Google

Google’s own page for site owners, “Do you need an SEO?”, puts it in one line: no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. The same page tells you to beware of anyone who claims a special relationship with Google or advertises a “priority submit”. Google decides what ranks, and nobody outside Google can promise a position, least of all for a search as fought over as “electrician Wigan”. A firm that knows its trade will talk about what it will do and what it expects to happen, and will say plainly that results take time and are never certain. A guarantee is the sound of someone who either does not understand how Google works or is banking on you not knowing. Either way, put the phone down.

2. They say they are calling from Google

Google’s Business Profile help page on fraudulent calls is blunt: if someone calls you pretending to be from Google, hang up. Google says it will never ask you for payment information over the phone or guarantee you a special spot in its products. The same page warns about callers who say they work “with Google” or “for Google” while selling something Google has nothing to do with. Google does make some automated calls, about things like checking your business details on Maps, and those tell you up front that the call is from Google and why. What Google says you will never be asked to do on one of those calls is sign up for a service, pay money or give personal information. If the caller wants money, it is not Google.

3. They say your listing will be deleted unless you act today

This is the pressure line, and it turns up in every kind of scam aimed at a business. Companies House’s own scam guidance describes callers claiming to be from a “registration department” that does not exist, and emails that copy its wording and pile on pressure to pay. The website version works the same way: your Business Profile is “unverified”, your listing is “suspended”, and only they can save it, today, for a fee. Claiming and verifying a Business Profile costs nothing and you can do it yourself; we wrote up the steps in our guide to claiming your Google Business Profile. Nothing on Google gets deleted because you would not pay a stranger. Take the caller’s details, say you will look into it, and check the listing yourself once they have gone.

4. An invoice for a domain name you already own

A letter or email arrives that looks like a renewal notice for your web address, from a company you do not recognise, often at a price well above what you normally pay. Pay it and you have handed money to a firm that never held your domain, or worse, agreed to move it away from the company that does. Companies House’s scam guidance lists fake invoices among the ways businesses are targeted in its name, and its advice fits any unexpected bill: do not pay, do not click, check with the real organisation first. For a domain, that means logging into the account where you bought it, or asking whoever built your site, and paying the renewal there and nowhere else. Your web address is the hardest part of your online presence to get back if you lose it, so it is the one worth guarding.

5. They will not say who they are, or the number is withheld

Proper marketing calls have rules. The ICO’s guidance on telephone marketing says a caller must always say who is calling and must let their number, or an alternative contact number, show on your phone. It also says an organisation must not make unsolicited live marketing calls to a number registered with the Telephone Preference Service or the Corporate TPS unless you have specifically consented. So ask for the company name, the caller’s name and a number you can ring back on. A real firm answers without a fuss; a caller who dodges, talks over you or rings from “unknown” is telling you what you need to know. The ICO’s nuisance calls page says you can register a number with the TPS free of charge, and its guidance says the Corporate TPS works the same way for companies and other corporate bodies.

6. They will not explain what they would actually do

Google’s “Do you need an SEO?” page says to be wary of firms that are secretive or will not clearly explain what they intend to do, and it reminds you that you, the site owner, are responsible for what a hired firm does to your site. It names the tactics to steer clear of: link schemes, mass submissions to thousands of search engines, and tools that claim to be “approved” by Google when Google endorses none of them. The honest version is dull: fixing the page titles, writing a page for each service and each town, getting the opening hours and phone number consistent everywhere, earning reviews from real jobs. Anyone who can do it can explain it in plain words. If the pitch is all “our system” and “proprietary methods”, you are being asked to pay for a secret, and a secret you cannot check is not worth a penny.

7. The email looks nearly right

Plenty of these pitches come by email rather than phone, dressed up as a warning from “Google Support” or your “hosting provider”. The NCSC’s small organisations guide lists the signs: a misspelled email address, an unexpected attachment, a generic greeting like “Dear valued customer”, links that lead to unknown sites, spelling and grammar mistakes, and poor quality or strange-looking logos. Google’s Search Central page adds that even Google receives spam emails claiming its sites are not listed in search engines, and says to treat unsolicited SEO emails with the same suspicion as any other spam. Look at the sender’s actual address rather than the display name, hover over any link before you click, and if in doubt do nothing. A real problem with your site or listing will still be there tomorrow, when you have had a chance to check with someone you trust.

8. You have had one already: where to report it

Reporting takes a few minutes and it is how these firms get shut down. GOV.UK’s page on avoiding and reporting internet scams says to forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, which is free. If you have lost money, the same page says to report it to Action Fraud online or on 0300 123 2040 in England and Wales, or to Police Scotland if you are in Scotland. Marketing calls that keep coming after you have registered with the TPS or Corporate TPS go to the ICO through its online reporting tool. Anything pretending to be Companies House goes to phishing@companieshouse.gov.uk, per its own guidance. Keep a note of the date, the number and what was said, because the report is easier with it in front of you.

What to do next

The one job for this week: write down who your domain is registered with, when it renews and who holds the login, and keep it where you can find it. Do the same for your Google Business Profile. Then the next cold call has nothing to frighten you with. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your website and listing before someone rings offering one for a fee, our free check-up is the place to start.