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Prankster plunges community into chaos by submitting fake supermarket on Google Maps


A traffic congestion, a truck that got stuck, and an overhead electricity cable that got ripped: someone who tried to be funny caused a lot of ruckus in a rural community in Wales.

This all happened in Cyffylliog, Denbighshire, a hamlet in the Northern part of Wales with only five hundred inhabitants.

Someone tried to pull a fast one on the small village.

That person changed the name of a farm in Google Maps and turned it into an Aldi store. Sounds innocent, but the prank had serious consequences.

In recent weeks, more people than usual showed up in town under the assumption they would find the supermarket to do their shopping.

However, Cyffylliog is a small town with loads of windy roads, not fitted to welcome large groups of visitors. A milk tanker found out the hard way as it got stuck on one of the town’s narrow bends. The same truck also ripped an overhead electricity cable from a house when passing.

“It is a small village and it does cause havoc because when we get big lorries through and they get stuck it causes problems for us,” one of the locals told BBC.

Elfred Williams, a local councilor, first acknowledged the humor, but was concerned at the same time. “People have been bemused by not finding an Aldi store here. On one level it’s amusing but on another level it is quite serious, where are the controls for Google to allow such a thing to happen?,” he wonders.

The alleged Aldi store in Cyffylliog has since been removed from Google Maps and the number of people traveling through the rural town has returned to normal.

In response to the incident, a Google spokesperson said that the listing has been updated and the company does whatever it can to detect dubious practices on its services.

“Our automated systems and trained operators work around the clock to monitor maps for suspicious behavior, including incorrect edits to places. We also make it easy for people to report misleading places and inappropriate content, which helps us keep the information on maps authentic and reliable.”


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