Google Sues Chinese Nationals Over Crypto Scam Apps on Play Store

(Reuters) – Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab sued two Chinese nationals in New York federal court on Thursday, accusing them of misusing its Google Play app store to scam thousands of users out of their money through dozens of fake cryptocurrency investment applications.

The lawsuit said, opens new tab that Yunfeng Sun in Shenzhen and Hongnam Cheung in Hong Kong were involved in a scheme to lure users into giving them money via the fake platforms, leading to up to tens of thousands of dollars in losses per victim since 2019.

Google accused Sun and Cheung of racketeering and violating the company’s terms of service and other policies. Sun and Cheung could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

“Keeping people safe online is core to our business and we will not tolerate the misuse of our platforms to facilitate cryptocurrency scams,” Google general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado said in a statement. “This litigation is a critical step in holding these bad actors accountable.”

Google said that Sun and Cheung engaged in a “social engineering” scheme to lure victims to their apps through “wayward” text messages.

“The texts would purport to be from wrong numbers, but then the texters would strike up conversations with the victims, developing ‘friendships’ and ‘romantic attachments,'” the complaint said.

The alleged fraudsters would then convince victims to “invest” through the apps and allow them to withdraw only small amounts of their “returns,” according to Google.

“When users tried to withdraw larger amounts of their ‘earnings,’ they were told to pay more money,” Google said. “When victims complained to the ‘friend’ or ‘romantic partner’ who had so helpfully guided them through the process, the ‘friend’ or ‘romantic partner’ would simply disappear.”

The lawsuit also said that Sun and Cheung used YouTube videos, social media ads and fake press releases to make the apps seem more legitimate.

Google said that it has disabled 87 fake apps from Sun and Cheung over the past four years that have been downloaded by nearly 100,000 users worldwide.