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New Zealand Florist Admits to Sabotaging Competitors on Google Maps

by Amar Toor on January 18, 2010 at 06:05 PM


Don't be fooled by all the pretty colors and aromatic bouquets -- the world of floristry can be pretty cutthroat. Just ask any rose retailer in Napier County, New Zealand, where one florist has admitted to changing her competitors' listed information on Google Maps as a way to undercut them.

According to Stuff, Kendra Drinkwater, who runs a flower business out of her home, recently pleaded guilty to six counts of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes after being accused of Google's first ever charge of "editing with ill intent" in New Zealand. According to the charges, Drinkwater accessed Google Maps on numerous occasions between November 1 and December 4, and, on at least 100 of those occasions, she changed the addresses, phone numbers and Web sites of six of her competitors. Drinkwater told the police that the habit soon became an addiction, and now seems pretty repentant, claiming to have penned handwritten apologies to the business owners she sabotaged. Still, she now faces up to five years in prison, and says she's already lost a lot of business because of her now-smeared reputation.

Dirty and dishonorable as her play may have been, it's not really that surprising that a small business owner would go to such lengths to take down competitors. After all, anyone with a Google account can freely change information on Google Maps, and the victims probably should've been more vigilant in getting their contact details officially "claimed" by Google. But at least the errors were caught, and justice will likely be served. [From: Stuff]

Tags: crime, floristry, google, google maps, GoogleMaps, new zealand, NewZealand, top

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