Any advice? Google lists my home address as a business address.

Millions Of Daisies

Hey guys, I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right forum, but any advice on how to fix this problem would be much appreciated! My private home address information is being used all over the internet by a dodgy guy who used to rent here. Even Google lists it as his business address.

The Situation:
We bought our house 4 years ago. Before we bought it, it was rented by a questionable character who used our house (illegally) as his business address for a dodgy transport company. He listed it on Google Maps/Places and on his Google+ account. He is now long gone (can't be contacted as he may have left the country) and he owes a lot of money. I know this because I still get a substantial amount of post for him from debt collection agencies. We've also had several police cars call to our house looking for him. It's a safe bet to guess that they found the address on Google because of the business listing (that's some swell detective work fellas). I happen to know he's actively giving our home address out to people that he doesn't want to pay, including angry ex-employees who have called here looking for him. I've found evidence online that he's been using our address to get transport licences, even in 2013! Is this fraud? I'm worried that someday he will cross the wrong person and we'll arrive home to broken windows or worse.

What I've done so far:
- I contacted the Gardaí. They said that there was nothing they could do to help.
- I contacted Google (via their Google listings) to report that this is a privately owned residential home, not a business address so this shouldn't be listed on Google Places/Maps in the first place. I reported his fraud Google+ address.
- I contacted several online websites who are listing my home address as his business address and asked them to remove the entries.
- I contacted Google to ask for verification card with a PIN to be sent to my address so I can change the business listing and remove it.
- I contacted An Post to redirect/stop the mail coming to our address. They said this wasn't possible.

What's happened:
- Google have updated Google Maps/Places to say '(his name)' Closed. This is not ideal.
- I have the verification PIN from Google, but it won't let me remove the entry or change the business name (i.e. his name) which is now associated with our address.

Does anyone know how I can get the Google business listing removed entirely?

Does anyone have a proper phone number for Google so I can actually get speaking to someone?

Should I resort to posting Google a letter?

It's been over 4 years, so you can understand my frustration trying to get this sorted. I need your help!

industrialhorse

This is really fooking terrible. It sounds as though the guards and Google just dont have a clue about how to approach this from a legal standpoint, and neither do I for that matter!
However, one option you may have is to contact the media (RTE, Daily Mirror, FM104 etc) and let them run a story on this. This will allow you to give your own version of events over the last 4 years and hopefully anyone else who is disgruntled with the "questionable character" will see how difficult this has been for you and your family and will leave you'se well alone.
It will also expose the failings (or downright uselessness) of the Gardai and Google in terms of helping to protect your integrity and general physical safety. It might even bring the questionable character to the attention of locals if you give his/her name to the media and they happen to be still living somewhere in the country and then the guards would definitely have to investigate.

Maybe somebody else on the forum can provide some considerably less drastic advice but I'm sure at this stage you have really had enough and it is time for some action:)

industrialhorse

industrialhorse wrote: »

This is really fooking terrible. It sounds as though the guards and Google just dont have a clue about how to approach this from a legal standpoint, and neither do I for that matter!
However, one option you may have is to contact the media (RTE, Daily Mirror, FM104 etc) and let them run a story on this. This will allow you to give your own version of events over the last 4 years and hopefully anyone else who is disgruntled with the "questionable character" will see how difficult this has been for you and your family and will leave you'se well alone.
It will also expose the failings (or downright uselessness) of the Gardai and Google in terms of helping to protect your integrity and general physical safety. It might even bring the questionable character to the attention of locals if you give his/her name to the media and they happen to be still living somewhere in the country and then the guards would definitely have to investigate.

Maybe somebody else on the forum can provide some considerably less drastic advice but I'm sure at this stage you have really had enough and it is time for some action:)

Oh and dont forget to mention those swines over at An Post too:D

Millions Of Daisies

industrialhorse wrote: »

Oh and dont forget to mention those swines over at An Post too:D

Ah they were very nice at An Post. They just said that they're legally obliged to deliver the letter to the address, even if the home owner says that the person is no longer at the address. So now I've to return all of them to the sender. Some of the letters look very important, so I don't want to just throw them in the bin (though I have been very tempted).

For the first few months when we moved in, the guy had his wife coming over to take his post out of our porch while we were at work (?). At first I was nice about it, but after a while, I had to ask them to set up a post redirect. They were trying to get away with not paying for the redirect! (cheapos). Now I'm back to getting about 5-10 letters for him each month.

Millions Of Daisies

Yeah, I'm thinking Joe Duffy may be interested in this one alright. I mean, what's to stop anyone from using someone else's address on Google? No doubt he was able to use it to make his dodgy business look more credible. Google need to set up a better system to be able to report these fraudsters. Looking at our little cul de sac on their maps, it's plain as day that we're in a housing estate.

Agent Bubbles

Try legal discussion Forum.

RangeR

OP : Make a formal complaint to Google Ireland via registered mail. In said letter, inform them that they have 20 business days to rectify the issue or you will have no further option but to make a formal complaint to the Department of the Data Protection Commissioner.

You should accept legal advice here. It could be flawed.

Millions Of Daisies

RangeR wrote: »

OP : Make a formal complaint to Google Ireland via registered mail. In said letter, inform them that they have 20 business days to rectify the issue or you will have no further option but to make a formal complaint to the Department of the Data Protection Commissioner.

You should accept legal advice here. It could be flawed.

Thanks RangerR! I've moved this thread over to here.

RangeR

Millions Of Daisies wrote: »

Thanks RangerR! I've moved this thread over to here.

And you got the same DPC response

Millions Of Daisies

Yes indeed it's good advice, and a good place to start. Thanks for that.

Mrs OBumble

Millions Of Daisies wrote: »

what's to stop anyone from using someone else's address on Google?

What's to stop them is that when the Google listing is first set up, a PIN is sent to the address, and the person with the Google account that requested the listing needs to enter that PIN.

Ovbviously they have a way of requiring listings to have their PIN refreshed, and that's how they sent one to you. The fact that you cannot log into dodgy-man's Google account and enter the PIN means that sooner or later the listing should become inactive.

The fact that you're obviously a housing estate is irrelevant: there are lots of businesses that quite legitimately have postal addresses in areas that are primarily residential.

TBH, I'm not sure that there's much you can do, given that dodgy-guy himself is still giving your address to people: if they don't ask for validation (eg copy of recent utility bill), then there's no way for them to know he doesn't live there.

Re the letters - I presume that you're writing "Gone, no forwarding address" on them? If so, the message should eventually get through tot he companies sendiing them. If not, then you may even want to call them and explain - but be aware that some are incredibly slow about updating their databases.

Harold Finch

I didn't read all but did you try going in from this link?

https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?rd=1