Google is being sued for dismantling the infrastructure behind an alleged massive AI-powered cybercrime operation.
On Friday, the tech giant announced A lawsuit against an alleged Chinese cybercrime network called Outsider Enterprise, which Google says uses AI in its campaigns to send scam text messages impersonating Google and other brands to steal passwords and credit card numbers.
Outsider Enterprise has committed financial scams with “hundreds of thousands of victims” and “estimated losses in the millions”. According to Google, the group deployed 9,000 fake websites, 1 million fraudulent web domains, and sent 2.5 million texts to Android users over a two-week period.
“55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks last May – that’s more than two text spam complaints per minute,” Google said.
Google said it uses “AI-powered tools to fight AI-driven scams”, which enable the company to detect scams and alert users of suspicious calls and text messages, preventing more than 10 billion scam messages a month.
The company said it is collaborating with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to stop scam text messages and said it is coordinating with the FBI, which is taking unspecified law enforcement actions.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
