Affirmative litigation

Lawsuit filed against a Maryland resident and 20 unnamed individuals for using fake reviews and deceptively edited Google Business Profiles to operate a scam targeting users seeking legitimate businesses in “duress” situations, such as locksmiths. This scheme involved creating or taking control of often generically named business listings, and then populating them with fake reviews. When users contacted these listings, they were routed through a lead generation service to a different company, which frequently demanded higher prices upon arrival (bait and switch).

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Asayag
• Press:
  • CBS Mornings Show: General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado did an exclusive interview on March 19th, coinciding with the filing of the complaint. It’s embedded in the CBS article below.
  • CBS News: Google finds 10,000 fake listings on Google Maps, sues alleged network of scammers
• To avoid duress scams:
  Always double-check the legitimacy of the business that you are contacting by validating licenses, confirming validity of physical addresses, and ensuring that the number you are calling matches the registered and official phone number.

Lawsuit filed against against a Bangladeshi national and multiple “John Doe” defendants who collectively sold and posted thousands of fake reviews on multiple platforms, including both Google and Amazon. The lawsuit is significant because Google and Amazon have taken parallel legal action against the defendants. This marks the first time Google and Amazon have taken joint action against fake reviewers. The companies hope that this action will deter future fake reviews and protect users and small businesses from the harms of false and inaccurate information.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Pondit
• Press:
  • Amazon Blog: Amazon and Google file parallel lawsuits against fake review website
• Tips for identifying fake reviews:
  Check reviewers’ profiles for suspicious activity, and look out for vague descriptions, unusual language and grammatical mistakes.

Lawsuit filed against transnational fraud ring who uploaded fraudulent cryptocurrency confidence scam apps on Google Play and tricked users into downloading these apps via SMS campaigns and affiliate marketing. The scheme caused at least 100K users to download the apps from Google Play. Google sought a permanent injunction to restrain defendants from being able to access and upload content to Google products and services, and on October 17th 2024, the court decided in our favor granting default judgment and issuing a permanent inunction against the defendants.

• Official complaint:

  • Google LLC v. Sun

• Press:

  • The Verge: Google sues alleged crypto scammers for luring people into investments they’d never get back
  • Reuters: Google sues alleged scammers over fake crypto investment apps

• To avoid cryptocurrency scams:
  Don’t download an investment app without doing a background check, and steer clear of online investment offers from people you haven’t met in person.

Scammers created fake social media pages and ads claiming to offer downloads of Bard, our freely available AI tool. These downloads actually contained malware that compromised people’s social media accounts. Through legal action, we asked the court to ban them from setting up similar fake websites, and to get existing websites disabled with U.S. domain registrars. The legal action was successful, and we obtained a default judgment (i.e. the court ruled in our favor because the defendants didn’t respond) of trademark infringement and a permanent injunction prohibiting the scammers from operating similar domains, websites and social media accounts.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Does 1-3
• Press:
  • Reuters: Google sues scammers over fake Bard AI malware
  • The Verge: Google fights scammers using Bard hype to spread malware
• Google announcement:
  • Taking legal action to protect users of AI and small businesses
• To avoid malware:
  Always research and download software ONLY from official sources, keeping your operating system and software updated for optimal security.

Lawsuit filed against Vietnam-based individuals who exploited Google’s DMCA takedown process to have competitors’ legitimate websites delisted, i.e. removed from search results. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a law created to protect copyright holders from people using their work without permission. As required by the law, Google has a process enabling content owners to file requests to have content used without their permission removed. The bad actors abused this process by filing false claims to take down content they didn’t own, submitting thousands of blatantly fraudulent requests in order to harm their business competitors. In September 2024, the court decided in our favor and granted default judgment after the defendants failed to respond.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Nguyen
• Press:
  • Ars Technica: Google sues people who “weaponized” DMCA to remove rivals’ search results
  • Torrent Freak: Google Sues Men Who Weaponized DMCA Notices to Crush Competition
• Google announcement:
  • Taking legal action to protect users of AI and small businesses

Lawsuit filed against an individual and his businesses for posting fake reviews on Business Profiles in Maps, fraudulently verifying them, and then selling businesses “leads” listed on the fake Business Profiles. The claim alleges that they posted over 350 fake Business Profile listings in maps, then bolstered them with more than 14,000 fake reviews. This case is still pending resolution, but keep an eye on this space as we will update it once the court has issued its decisions.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Hu
• Press:
  • The Verge: Google sues alleged scammer over fake business and review scheme
  • Reuters: New Google lawsuit aims to curb fake business reviews
• Google announcement:
  • We’re taking legal action to stop fake review scams
• Tips for identifying fake reviews:
  Check reviewers’ profiles for suspicious activity, and look out for vague descriptions, unusual language and grammatical mistakes.

Case filed against Pakistan-based distributors of Cryptbot malware, which we estimate to have infected approximately 670,000 computers, targeting Google Chrome users to steal their data. Users downloaded and installed maliciously modified versions of software like Chrome, without realizing that it would infect their machines with malware designed to identify and steal sensitive information like login credentials. CryptBot sent the stolen data to be harvested and sold to bad actors to use in data breach campaigns. We won, when the court agreed with the claims that we made, issuing a default judgment against the defendants who didn’t respond to the legal action. The court also issued a “permanent injunction”, like a court order telling the cybercriminals to stop their illegal activities for good, allowing us to take down their malicious content, even if they try to move to different platforms.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Saeed
• Press:
  • TechCrunch: Google disrupts malware that steals sensitive data from Chrome users
  • Bleeping Computer: Google starts taking down CryptBot malware infrastructure
• Google announcement:
  • Continuing our work to hold cybercriminal ecosystems accountable
• To avoid malware:
  Always research and download software ONLY from official sources, keeping your operating system and software updated for optimal security.

Lawsuit filed against scammers who tricked businesses into paying for free “Business Profile” verification. The scammers made predatory and misleading calls, claiming that businesses needed to pay to appear correctly on Search and Maps and further claiming that if they did not pay they would be removed. They also created websites advertising the purchase of fake reviews, both positive and negative, and claimed that they could guarantee search result rankings. Our case was successful. The court granted a “permanent injunction” and “stipulated judgment”. The permanent injunction is essentially a ban that means that they are prohibited from doing any business or marketing related to Google’s Business Profile or any other Google product or service, including using Google’s logo or any confusingly similar replicas in ways that make people think they’re associated with Google.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. GVerifier Technologies LLC
• Press:
  • Search Engine Land: Google files lawsuit against company falsely promising Page 1 rankings
  • Mashable: Google is going after scammers that prey on small businesses
• Google announcement:
  • Protecting small businesses from scammers
• Avoid being charged for free services: If someone reaches out claiming to represent an organization and asking for money, take your time to do research, and when in doubt hang up. Report unwanted calls to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.donotcall.gov and report fake Google associations through our webform.

First-of-kind lawsuit filed against a Cameroon-based scammer who abused Google services to run a puppy scam targeting the elderly during the pandemic. The scammer created websites with enticing photos and fake testimonials to trick people who were looking to buy basset hound puppies, and used Gmail accounts, Google Voice numbers and advertisements to facilitate the sale of these non-existent pets. The court agreed with our claims, and granted our “Motion for default judgment and permanent injunction.” The “Motion for default judgment” here means the court ruled in our favor because the scammer didn’t respond to our legal action. The “permanent injunction” is like a court order that tells the bad actor to stop their illegal activities for good and allows us to take down their websites and other malicious content, even if they try to move to different platforms.

• Official complaint:
  • Google LLC v. Ntse
• Press:
  • Reuters: Google sues alleged puppy scammer after tip from AARP
  • The Verge: Google sues scammer for ‘puppy fraud’
• Google announcement:
  • Hounding scammers with litigation
• To avoid pet scams:
  Always make sure to see the pet in person or by video, and use verified payment methods before buying. Look for red flags like deeply discounted prices and do some online research into the seller to verify legitimacy.

Lawsuit against two Russian-based individuals operating a massive “botnet” (a network of compromised devices) that targeted Windows users worldwide. This botnet, powered by blockchain technology, was used to steal money and data, including Google users’ login information. After nearly a year long legal battle with the defendants, the court ruled in our favor, and also issued monetary sanctions against both the Russian-based defendants and their US-based lawyer – i.e. requiring the bad actors behind Glupteba to pay Google’s legal fees.

• Official complaint:
  https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/documents/1_Complaint.pdf
• Press:
  • TechCrunch: Google disrupts Russian botnet that infected 1 million Windows machines
  • BBC: Google sues alleged Russian cyber criminals
• Google announcement when we filed:
  https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/new-action-combat-cyber-crime/
• Google announcement when we won:
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/a-ruling-in-our-legal-case-against-the-glupteba-botnet/
• Best practices for avoiding botnet attacks
  • Only download software and files from trusted sources and steer clear of peer-to-peer downloading.