Today’s story is the classic story we bring on Sundays, as they tell reality in its most unexpected version and there is a lot to talk about. During the week there is no time for long stories, but today there is.
Google has sued two alleged cryptocurrency scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent cryptocurrency trading applications and investment platforms that, instead, simply took users’ money.
These applications were used in a type of romance scam commonly known as “pig butchering”, referring to the fattening of a pig before slaughtering it.
100,000 people scammed and Google is furious
The accused scammers, two app developers based in China and Hong Kong, allegedly uploaded 87 different fraudulent applications to carry out their scams, attracting over 100,000 people who downloaded them.
According to user complaints, Google claims that each of them lost between $100 and tens of thousands of dollars. The apps uploaded by the couple and their anonymous partners have been used in versions of the scam since at least 2019, according to Google.
Google says it is the first company in the industry to take this type of action. It has already closed the apps in the Play Store once it determined they were fraudulent.
“This litigation is a critical step in holding these bad actors accountable and sending a clear message that we will aggressively pursue those who seek to take advantage of our users,” said Google’s General Counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, in a statement.
Google claims that it was also harmed by the scheme because it threatens the “integrity” of its app store and diverted resources to detect and dismantle the operation. The company says it suffered economic damages of over $75,000 investigating the fraud.
How the love and crypto scam worked
This is how the alleged scam worked, according to Google’s complaint: developers created fake cryptocurrency exchange and investment applications, presenting them on the Play Store as legitimate investment apps and allegedly falsifying details such as their location in order to upload them.
Next, the alleged scammers or their partners would lure users to the platforms through a mix of romantic messages and YouTube videos. Although this type of scam is often referred to as “pig butchering,” Google states in a footnote to its complaint that it does not adopt or endorse the term.
The initial messages they sent might sound familiar to anyone who has received text spam: messages like “I’m Sophia, do you remember me?” or “I miss you all the time, how are your parents Mike?”, according to the complaint.
If they received a response, the alleged scammers apparently tried to start a conversation and eventually move it to a platform like WhatsApp, before convincing their new “friend” to download one of the fraudulent applications and deposit money into it.
Developers or their partners also sometimes convinced the alleged victims that they could earn commissions by selling the applications themselves as “affiliates” of the platforms, according to the complaint.
Once users were in the applications, developers made the platforms appear convincing by showing a balance and investment performance, claims Google. The only problem: users couldn’t withdraw their money.
According to Google, sometimes the apps allowed to withdraw small amounts of money or demanded a commission or a minimum balance to be able to withdraw money, which ultimately scammed some even more money.
Google accuses developers of violating its terms of service and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It asks the court to prevent them from committing further fraud and to award it unspecified damages.
