Google is suing to stop China’s Cybercrime Group from using its AI
Google sued a Chinese cybercrime network on Friday, accusing it of using the company’s artificial intelligence to commit online financial fraud against hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The Internet giant also said it is coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and wireless service providers such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon for the first time to shut down the network known as Outsider Enterprise.
The Chinese group used Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence system, to create hundreds of fake websites impersonating companies such as Google and YouTube and government operations such as the Postal Service and New York’s E-ZPass service for freeway tolls, the lawsuit said.
Google warned that AI had overtaken the problem of online fraud and said it was trying to get ahead of what it believed could be a rise in online fraud using Gemini and other AI tools.
AI-based scams are growing faster than other types of online phishing and fraud schemes, according to Google and law enforcement. Cybercriminals robbed Americans of nearly $21 billion last year, with approx $893 million in AI-related lossesthe FBI announced.
“This is our first coordinated effort and a lawsuit that speaks to the breadth of the impact this particular fraud is having,” Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s general counsel, said in an interview.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Google accused the Chinese network of using its technology and brand for fraudulent purposes. It asked the court for an injunction so the company and law enforcement could work to shut down the network.
Google said the network coordinated the Telegram messaging service to share tips and trade software suites using AI to mass-produce fraudulent messages across communication platforms.
Hundreds of thousands of people were affected, the vast majority of them in the United States, Google said. The company could not determine the exact amount of damages, but said it was in the millions.
The Chinese network used AI to create 131 software suites that facilitated the creation of thousands of fake websites. Over two weeks in May, the group sent 2.5 million messages to Android phone users with links to 9,000 fake websites and more than a million fraudulent Internet addresses linked to the group.
“Criminals are increasingly using AI to make fraud more convincing and harder to detect,” said Brett Leatherman, deputy director of the FBI’s Cyber Division.