Google sues crypto scammers for allegedly uploading fake apps

"Are You a CEO, Director, or Founder interested in a Feature Interview?"

All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge

Google on Thursday filed a lawsuit against a group of cryptocurrency scammers, accusing them of defrauding more than 100,000 people worldwide by uploading fraudulent investment and cryptocurrency exchange apps to Google Play.

Google is the first tech company to take action against cryptocurrency scammers and says it is doing so as a way to set a legal precedent to establish protection for users. The complaint alleges that the defendants “made multiple false statements to Google in order to upload unauthorized apps to Google Play, including but not limited to misrepresentations regarding their identity, location, and type and nature of the applications being uploaded.” He claims that he made a display.

of alphabetThe company, owned by , has filed breach of contract claims as well as Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges against a group of scammers for creating and publishing at least 87 fraudulent apps to defraud users. A civil lawsuit has also been filed.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use our resources to actually fight the bad guys who were running a large-scale encryption scheme to deceive some users.” Halima Delaine PradoGoogle’s General Counsel told CNBC Crypto World in an exclusive on-camera interview.

“In 2023 alone, more than $1 billion in crypto fraud and scams occurred in the United States. [lawsuit] “This not only allows us to use our resources to protect our users, but also serves as a kind of precedent for future bad actors that we will not tolerate this behavior,” she added.

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, The alleged fraudsters, identified as Yunfeng Sun, also known as Alphonse Sun, and Hong-Nam Chan, also known as Chan Hong-nim or Stanford Fisher, said they had been conducting the fraud since at least 2019. The duo lured victims into downloading apps from Google Play, ran text message campaigns using Google Voice to victims primarily in the United States and Canada, online promotional videos on YouTube and other platforms, and user registration. We provide information to other sources through three methods of affiliate marketing campaigns that pay user commissions for:

According to the complaint, Mr. Sun, Mr. Chan, and their agents tried to make the app appear legitimate and tricked users into maintaining balances on the app and showing them that they were receiving profits from their investments. He designed the app. However, users were not able to withdraw their investments or purported profits.

To convince users that the app was trustworthy, the defendants initially allowed users to withdraw small amounts of money, according to the complaint. Others were allegedly told they needed to pay a fee or have a minimum balance to withdraw their money, and Google said the ruse “defrauded some victims out of even more money. ”.

“Unfortunately, as new technology emerges, bad actors try to exploit it to deceive users,” said DeLaine Prado. “We have teams working around the clock to detect fraud, spam, and abuse, and when we find special cases, we actually go the extra mile to help our users in a more constructive way. We’re really going to engage in aggressive litigation to actually establish legal protections for.”

One of the apps featured in the lawsuit was TionRT, which claims to be a cryptocurrency exchange. Google said the app was uploaded to Play in 2022 by a developer account associated with Sun. According to the complaint, participants in the scheme used text messages and social media platforms to lure victims into downloading apps and investing with the promise of extra income.

TionRT appeared to be legitimate from news releases about the app published on the news service’s website, according to the complaint. Google said the victim later complained to the sender of the text message that she was unable to withdraw money, but received no response. The platform was eventually shut down.

Google was alerted to a fake app by a victim who was unsuccessfully trying to withdraw funds.

“We have a dedicated cybersecurity team that constantly monitors all of our platforms and services, looking for opportunities to do more or where we believe users are being abused.” Derain・Mr. Prado said. Law enforcement, she added.

Google says in its complaint that once an app goes offline, the scammers create a new one and upload it to Google Play, “using a variety of computer network infrastructure and accounts to obscure their identities and, in the process, “Making materially false statements to Google.” “・

Google claims it has suffered damages in excess of $75,000 in costs of investigating the breach and the burden of safety and integrity resources. The company is seeking general damages and a permanent injunction barring the defendants and their employees from creating Google accounts and accessing Google services.