VY Maps comes up as an information listing site, among many others. I have been trying to get the listing for an op shop changed, using their online form, for over seven months, to no effect. They have the wrong address, the shop moved in April 2023 and a completely inappropriate private mobile number (the owner of the phone is extremely unwell & not now associated with the shop). Does anyone know how to make VY Maps take notice and if there is a legal resource that could offer help/solution? Thanks.
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This assessment isn’t promising:
https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/vymaps.com
The website appears to be a data harvesting website with wrong or out of date information. Our own business is on the website - something never requested or approved by us. The information is also wrong.
My guess is it isn’t a managed website or internationally contains wrong information so that businesses contact them - maybe to allow businesses to go on a confirmed spam list for example.
I personally would ignore the website and information it contains.
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I should also mention that as a small business operator, we regularly get emails from ‘business registries’ no different to VYMaps which invite ‘free’ registration on their websites.
They ask for a registration form to be filled in, but in the very small print it says that while registration or updating is free, registration means that you agree to pay an ongoing subscription to have the business listed. The EU Registry is a few hundred Euros. There is also an Australian Business Registry doing the rounds which is also a scam/sham business registration website.
They are a pain as we get at least 2-3 email a week. We have set up filters to manage the scam emails.
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I would love to be able to ignore the site but I am the secretary for a WA country ,community owned, op shop; people make a special journey to visit us and become annoyed/frustrated when the shop is not at the address given on VY Maps. However grumpy customers are a small problem compared to the fact that a private mobile phone number, belonging to a very unwell person, is being published as the op shop number. That is for me a serious issue that needs resolving ASAP.
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Until you raised VY Maps, I had never heard of it. From information available, it appears to be a sham/scam website and one which shouldn’t be taken as being a
If doing an internet search for the op shop shows the VY Map listing near the top of a search results list, maybe the op shop should look at ensuring it is also on Google and Apple Maps.
Google provides free business listings:
And here is the Apple link:
The reason for setting up free business listings with Google and Apple, is because these are the most popular smart phone operating systems and one using their maps apps will find correct information about the op shop. The information is also updated by the business/op shop not some unknown person/website administrator somewhere, whose interests may not to update information without exchange of money.
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Perhaps you could put a sign on your store window near the entry indicating that correct information about your shop can be found on Google, Google Maps, and Apple Maps.
We had a business which we closed twelve years ago. We still get occasional calls from people who have found contact information on listing sites we knew nothing about. Even while we were in business we tried unsuccessfully correcting incorrect information on listing sites we found out about from callers.
These sites appear to have a no care, no responsibility attitude relying on people stopping so they can generate advertising revenue.
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Thanks for the answers but I very specifically asked how to get VY Maps to respond. Not Google or Apple, etc, etc, been there did that months ago, just VY Maps.
A sign on the shop window will not help people who cannot find the shop when they get to our small town and who may have already driven for 80+km!
Neither will it help REMOVE a private mobile phone number belonging to a person who is not part of the op shop but is extremely ill.
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Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I have tried unsuccessfully to correct listing sites like the VY Maps. My experience was that I didn’t ever get a response to my correspondence, and the listings were never corrected.
Sorry but I do not think you will ever manage to have the situation resolved.
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Since you cannot fix what is wrong, would you specify the name of your op shop please? it might help with suggestions such as investing in some google and bing search engine ‘tricks’ so the VY Maps would be down the list of mapping links.
A local winery had seriously incorrect map information a few years ago and erected a sign on the main road pointing to where they are, not where google said they were. Another way forward even if inconvenient.
As for the ill person, is it an option for them to change their number (perhaps not under the circumstances)? They could keep the old number with an announce only message referencing their new number as well as your op-shop number.
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You won’t be able to get them to respond. They appear to be scammers at worst and a sham website at best. One online report states it is ‘collecting data from facebook and selling it to scammers using children charity’. The website doesn’t appear to have any legitimacy and why they might post wrong business information - so businesses can ‘update’ with current correct information for on-selling to spammers/scammers.
Their website is hosted in France, and from all indications on their website, they are not Australian (it has listings for most countries).
There is little you can do. All I suggest is not filling in their online form to ‘update’ details as it is highly likely this information will be used to better target scams or spam.
Ensuring the op shop is on Google and Apple Maps may reduce traffic to VYMaps, thus reducing the likelihood incorrect business information being used and the mobile number of an unrelated party being called.
Looking at some other nearby businesses on VYMaps, of the three I randomly looked at none of the information is fully correct. This makes me even more suspicious VYMaps may not be seen for what it is, and any contact with them should be avoided. I personally won’t be filling in ‘updated’ listing details for our own business as we get enough spam and scammer contacts already. I have no plans to feed the fire.
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Success at last; I found an email address for VYMaps vymaps@liputra.com, and an apparently live person (or a helpful robot) responded. The address information is now correct and the telephone number has been deleted.
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Good to hear. That email address is the one shown on their Website ‘about us’ contact information.
So sending to their contact, as they publish for support, got the issue solved.
Well fancy that. Appologies if that comes across as a bit sarcastic, but really almost all Web sites do provide details on how they can be contacted. Usually in an about us or support page.
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Pleased they adjusted the phone number and updated contacts… but…
It is possible your organisation will now receive more spam or scam contacts from some of the reports online - particularly now they know the contact details are correct and used. It is important to be vigilant in the coming months to ensure anyone in the organisation doesn’t succumb to scams. It might be worth letting everyone know in the organisation that this is a real possibility when receiving communications at the organisation.
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They can go to the shop and buy stuff. Other than that I am the only contact. I use the organisations single email address; gmail is pretty good at detecting spam, currently it quarantines about 3 emails addressed to the op shop a month. I am fairly scam aware because I’ve been using, training people on use of, computers/email for a very long time.
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What sarcastic never 
unfortunately the listing page has a specific link for updating information which opens a form to complete & submit, so trying to be logical I filled in the form several times over a number of months (I’m a slow learner obviously and it was a pointless exercise but it worked for all the other website listings - Google, etc.). It was only when they repeatedly took no notice I decided to email their company contact address; I might also have mentioned I was seeking legal advice!
I suspect the form’s only function, and it would be an automated process, would be to add new entries to expand the listings. Not to modify or delete. That would have to be handled by a human support process.
