The Voice Search Call You Should Hang Up On

A phone scam is pitching businesses a fake voice search registration for Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Here is how to spot it, and what actually makes you findable by voice.

There is a phone call making the rounds. It goes something like this.

Someone calls your business. They say they are with a voice search company. They tell you that Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are how customers find businesses now, and that your business is not registered. The good news: they can fix it. They are a certified voice search partner of Google, Apple, and Amazon. There are only five certification spots left in your market. Normally the registration is $299, but if you sign up today, it is $199.

They will take your credit card on that call.

Here is what they will not do: show up when you look for them.

What we found when we looked

We recently took one of these calls ourselves. Then we did what any business owner can do in ten minutes.

We searched for the company on Google Maps. Nothing. We checked the Better Business Bureau. No profile. We searched state business registrations. No entity under that name. No reviews. No verifiable address. No web presence that matched what the caller claimed.

A company selling visibility that cannot be found. That tells you everything.

Why the pitch is hollow

The pitch works because it sounds plausible. Voice search is real. Customers do ask Siri and Alexa for recommendations. But the mechanics behind the pitch are false.

There is no voice search directory. Voice assistants do not have a separate registration system. They pull answers from sources that already exist: your Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, review platforms, and the structured information on your website.

There is no certified partner program for voice search placement. Google, Apple, and Amazon do not sell placement in assistant results, and they do not license third parties to sell it. Anyone claiming to be one of five certified partners is describing a program that does not exist.

There is nothing to buy. If your business information is accurate, complete, and consistent across the platforms that matter, voice assistants can already find you. That is not a product. That is maintenance.

The tells

These calls follow a script. Once you know the pattern, you can spot it in the first minute.

• Urgency. Only a few spots left. Price goes up tomorrow. Legitimate companies do not need you to decide in one phone call.
• Fake authority. Certified partner. Authorized registrar. Official directory. Ask them for a link to the certification program on Google's or Apple's own website. There isn't one.
• Payment on the first call. They want a credit card before you have seen a contract, a company address, or a single verifiable fact about who they are.
• A company you cannot find. This is the simplest test. A business that sells search visibility should be visible. Search their name on Maps. Check the BBB. Check your state's business registry. If they fail the test they claim to administer, hang up.

What actually makes you findable by voice

Voice assistants answer with the business that has the clearest, most trusted information. That comes from work you can see and verify.

An accurate, active Google Business Profile. Correct information on Apple Business Connect and Bing Places. Consistent name, address, and phone number everywhere you appear. Real reviews, answered. A website that states plainly what you do and where you do it.

None of this is secret. None of it requires a certification. It requires attention, done consistently, by someone accountable to you.

We hold ourselves to the same test

It is fair to ask whether we pass the standard we just described. Here is the answer.

Talloo has a physical address in Meridian, Idaho. We are registered with the Idaho Secretary of State, and you can look us up there right now. We hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. We are members of local chambers of commerce. Our name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere we appear: Maps, search, directories, reviews.

That is not a boast. It is the baseline. Any company asking for your trust and your credit card should clear it without effort. When one cannot, you have your answer.

The takeaway

Be visible. Be credible. And apply the same standard to anyone who calls selling either one.

If a company wants your credit card to make you findable, find them first. Ten minutes of searching will tell you whether they pass their own test. The legitimate ones will. The ones running a script from a phone bank will not.

Customers choose businesses they can find and trust. So should you.

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