It sounds like the beginning of a joke: What do a locksmith and the U.S. Secret Service have in common? The punch line, in this case, is “a Google Maps problem.”
Last month a Seattle techie named Bryan Seely—who is also, as it happens, into stand-up comedy—pulled off a gag to demonstrate the unintended consequences of Google’s (GOOG) lax oversight of its map service. Seely’s method involved setting up a fake listing for a Secret Service office. Loopholes in Google’s systems allow scammers to divert traffic from local services such as locksmiths, he says, and the problem has been around for years.
via How Scammers Turn Google Maps Into Fantasy Land – Businessweek.
