Google Sues Chinese Cybercrime Operation That Used Gemini AI To Send Scam Texts (techcrunch.com)
(Friday June 12, 2026 @05:20PM (BeauHD)
from the cease-and-desist dept.)
- Reference: 0183771260
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/06/12/186250/google-sues-chinese-cybercrime-operation-that-used-gemini-ai-to-send-scam-texts
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/12/google-sues-alleged-chinese-cybercrime-operation-that-used-ai-to-send-scam-texts/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:
> Google is suing to dismantle the infrastructure behind an alleged massive AI-powered cybercrime operation. On Friday, the tech giant [1]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 [2]impersonating Google and other brands to steal passwords and credit card numbers .
>
> Outsider Enterprise has financially scammed "hundreds of thousands of victims" with losses "estimated in the millions." The group deployed 9,000 fake websites, 1 million fraudulent web domains, and 2.5 million texts sent to Android users in a two-week period, according to Google. "55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks this past May -- that's more than two text spam complaints a minute," Google said.
>
> Google said it uses "AI-powered tools to fight AI-powered scams", which enable the company to detect scams and alert users of suspicious calls and text messages, leading to the interception of more than 10 billion scam messages a month. The company said it has been collaborating with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block the scam text messages and said it is coordinating with the FBI, which is taking unspecified law enforcement actions.
[1] http://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/combatting-ai-scams/
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/12/google-sues-alleged-chinese-cybercrime-operation-that-used-ai-to-send-scam-texts/
> Google is suing to dismantle the infrastructure behind an alleged massive AI-powered cybercrime operation. On Friday, the tech giant [1]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 [2]impersonating Google and other brands to steal passwords and credit card numbers .
>
> Outsider Enterprise has financially scammed "hundreds of thousands of victims" with losses "estimated in the millions." The group deployed 9,000 fake websites, 1 million fraudulent web domains, and 2.5 million texts sent to Android users in a two-week period, according to Google. "55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks this past May -- that's more than two text spam complaints a minute," Google said.
>
> Google said it uses "AI-powered tools to fight AI-powered scams", which enable the company to detect scams and alert users of suspicious calls and text messages, leading to the interception of more than 10 billion scam messages a month. The company said it has been collaborating with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block the scam text messages and said it is coordinating with the FBI, which is taking unspecified law enforcement actions.
[1] http://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/combatting-ai-scams/
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/12/google-sues-alleged-chinese-cybercrime-operation-that-used-ai-to-send-scam-texts/
Were any Chinese laws violated? (Score:2)
Just asking for a friend in the business. But if you ask, I insist it was just a joke and there is no such friend.
Actually, I think the corruption is the most communist aspect of the story--but we Westerners are catching up fast.
Now about the AI part of it. The best new scam I've seen recently was actually almost a year ago and involved impersonating a celebrity. But from the tone of the scam at that time I considered it most likely to be using DeepSeek or possibly ChatGPT rather than Gemini or Copilot or C