It took 87 malicious apps and 100,000 victims for the company to pay attention to the situation.
Earlier last week, Google filed a lawsuit against two Chinese app developers, accusing them of creating fraudulent apps for investing in cryptocurrencies and publishing them on the Google Play store.
According to the company, developers Yunfeng Sun (also referred to as Alphonse Sun) and Hongnam Cheng (also known as Zhang Hongnim and Stanford Fisher) from Shenzhen and Hong Kong, respectively, developed 87 fraudulent apps between 2014 and 2019. These apps, ostensibly platforms for exchanging cryptocurrencies or investing in them, promised large returns on investment. However, it is claimed that everything was just a hoax, which affected at least 100,000 people around the world.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Google, says that victims invested real money in fraudulent applications, but their balance readings were illusory. Instead of making a real profit, Sun and Cheng reportedly withdrew all deposits and prohibited victims from withdrawing funds from their account, sometimes even demanding additional fees for various services.
The court documents also describe the marketing campaigns that the defendants conducted to promote their fraudulent apps, including sending messages and creating videos with hired actors allegedly talking about the project team. The videos claimed that the apps are safe and provide high returns.
Google accuses crypto scammers Sun and Cheng of abusing various services of the company, including the Play Store, Google Voice, Google Workspace, Gmail and YouTube, which hosted video ads for fraudulent applications. The company is seeking an injunction banning the accused and their employees from accessing Google services.
Halima Delane Prado, Google's legal director, said that this may be the first time that a tech company has taken legal action against cryptocurrency scammers.
Prado also stressed that about 100,000 Google users were affected by Sun and Cheng's actions, including 8,700 in the United States, and fraud damages ranged from a few thousand to $ 75,000.
Google has reportedly suffered losses of more than $ 75,000 related to the investigation of the defendants activities and efforts to secure its platforms.
It's not surprising that Google has decided to address this issue so closely: investment fraud has become the leading form of cybercrime in the United States in terms of financial losses, exceeding even the losses from ransomware attacks.
Back in March last year, the FBI warned the public about the growing number of fraudulent attacks that parasitize the popularity of cryptocurrencies and investments. Many of these attacks were also cited in Google's lawsuit as evidence.
Earlier last week, Google filed a lawsuit against two Chinese app developers, accusing them of creating fraudulent apps for investing in cryptocurrencies and publishing them on the Google Play store.
According to the company, developers Yunfeng Sun (also referred to as Alphonse Sun) and Hongnam Cheng (also known as Zhang Hongnim and Stanford Fisher) from Shenzhen and Hong Kong, respectively, developed 87 fraudulent apps between 2014 and 2019. These apps, ostensibly platforms for exchanging cryptocurrencies or investing in them, promised large returns on investment. However, it is claimed that everything was just a hoax, which affected at least 100,000 people around the world.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Google, says that victims invested real money in fraudulent applications, but their balance readings were illusory. Instead of making a real profit, Sun and Cheng reportedly withdrew all deposits and prohibited victims from withdrawing funds from their account, sometimes even demanding additional fees for various services.
The court documents also describe the marketing campaigns that the defendants conducted to promote their fraudulent apps, including sending messages and creating videos with hired actors allegedly talking about the project team. The videos claimed that the apps are safe and provide high returns.
Google accuses crypto scammers Sun and Cheng of abusing various services of the company, including the Play Store, Google Voice, Google Workspace, Gmail and YouTube, which hosted video ads for fraudulent applications. The company is seeking an injunction banning the accused and their employees from accessing Google services.
Halima Delane Prado, Google's legal director, said that this may be the first time that a tech company has taken legal action against cryptocurrency scammers.
Prado also stressed that about 100,000 Google users were affected by Sun and Cheng's actions, including 8,700 in the United States, and fraud damages ranged from a few thousand to $ 75,000.
Google has reportedly suffered losses of more than $ 75,000 related to the investigation of the defendants activities and efforts to secure its platforms.
It's not surprising that Google has decided to address this issue so closely: investment fraud has become the leading form of cybercrime in the United States in terms of financial losses, exceeding even the losses from ransomware attacks.
Back in March last year, the FBI warned the public about the growing number of fraudulent attacks that parasitize the popularity of cryptocurrencies and investments. Many of these attacks were also cited in Google's lawsuit as evidence.
