Google Files Racketeering Suits Over Alleged Crypto-App Scams
(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.'s Google sued two people based in China it says used the company's platforms to distribute and advertise fraudulent crypto apps.
The search giant claims the alleged scammers engaged in racketeering, violating the so-called Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, the federal law used to crack down on organized crime. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York Thursday morning.
The lawsuit is the latest example of the company's effort to crack down on fraudsters — in this case on its Google Play and YouTube platforms — by suing them directly. Google last year sued five individuals who allegedly tricked people looking for Google's artificial intelligence chatbot into downloading malware onto their computers.
Google said in the lawsuit the defendants conspired to engage in a pattern of racketeering by committing hundreds of acts of wire fraud in their wide-ranging criminal scheme.
Victims of the scam poured their money into the apps, which were designed to look like crypto investments, and then found they could not withdraw their balances, according to the lawsuit. Approximately 100,000 users have downloaded the apps from Google Play, the lawsuit claimed.
“Keeping people safe online is core to our business and we will not tolerate the misuse of our platforms to facilitate cryptocurrency scams,” said Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google's general counsel. “This litigation is a critical step in holding these bad actors accountable and sending a clear message that we will aggressively pursue those who seek to take advantage of our users.”
Google used business records to identify at least 87 apps uploaded to the Google Play store by the scammers since 2019, according to the lawsuit. The company has taken down the apps as they pop up, but said in the filing that they continue to bypass Google's fraud detection systems.
The scammers “socially engineered and lured victim investors to download their fraudulent apps” through text messaging campaigns, videos promoting the app and online influencers, Google said in its suit.
Losses from crypto investment scams in the U.S. increased to $3.94 billion in 2023 from $2.57 billion in 2022, marking a 53% increase, according to a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1:24-cv-02559 Google LLC v. Sun et al
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
