Tech giant Google is reportedly launching a lawsuit against crypto scammers who allegedly employed fake Android apps to reel in their victims.
According to a new report from Reuters, Google is suing Chinese nationals Yunfeng Sun and Hongnam Cheung in New York, accusing them of stealing tens and thousands of dollars worth of digital assets from Google Play App Store customers.
Google says that the duo engaged in social engineering to defraud people, luring them to their fake Android apps through text messages.
As stated in Google’s complaint, according to Reuters,
“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.’”
Google says the scammers would then convince their targets to invest money into fake apps and would only allow them to withdraw small amounts of their “returns” before disappearing completely.
“When users tried to withdraw larger amounts of their ‘earnings,’ they were told to pay more money. 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 search engine giant says that Sun and Cheung also used YouTube videos, fake press releases, and social media marketing to give their apps an appearance of legitimacy.
Google said it had to disable 87 fake apps that were downloaded a combined 100,000 times worldwide linked to the bad actors, according to the report.
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