CRYPTOCURRENCY SCAM: A Romantic App scam with crypto that Google has decided to report.
Google has sued two alleged cryptocurrency scammers. They have been accused of using their Play Store to offer fraudulent cryptocurrency trading apps and investment platforms, in exchange for which they took users’ money.
These apps were used in a type of romance scam commonly known as “pig butchering,” which refers to the fattening of a pig before slaughter.
CRYPTOCURRENCY SCAM: 100,000 people scammed making Google angry.
The accused scammers, two app developers based in China and Hong Kong, allegedly uploaded 87 different fraudulent apps to carry out their scam, attracting more than 100,000 people to download them.
Based on user complaints, Google says each user lost between $100 and $10,000. According to Google, apps uploaded by the couple and their anonymous partner have been used in fraudulent versions since at least 2019.
Google says it is the first company in this field to take such measures. It already shut down apps on the Play Store as soon as it discovered they were fraudulent.
“Halimah Delen Prado, who serves as Google’s general counsel, stated that the lawsuit marks a significant move towards making sure those responsible for wrongdoing are held responsible. She emphasized that it sends a strong signal that they are committed to vigorously pursuing individuals or entities attempting to exploit their users.
Google claims it also suffered losses from the scheme because it threatened the “integrity” of its App Store and diverted resources to detect and dismantle the operation. The company says it has suffered a financial loss of more than $75,000 in the fraud investigation.
How does the love and cryptocurrency scam work?
According to Google’s complaint, the developers created fake cryptocurrency trading and investing apps, presented them on the Play Store as legitimate investing apps, and allegedly falsified their data to upload them.
The people accused of scamming, or those connected to them, would attract users to the platform by sending them romantic messages and sharing YouTube videos. Although this type of scam is often called “pig butchering,” Google says in a footnote to its complaint that it does not adopt or endorse this term.
The first message she sent may sound familiar to anyone who has received unwanted text messages: “I’m Sophia, do you remember me?” I like the messages. “I frequently catch myself pondering about you, Mike. How are your parents doing?”, according to the complaint.
If someone replied to them, it seems that the suspected scammers tried to chat with them and then shifted the conversation to a platform like WhatsApp. After gaining their trust, they persuaded their new “friend” to download one of their fake apps and convinced them to put money into it.
According to the complaint, the developers or their partners sometimes convinced the alleged victims that they could earn commissions by selling apps as “affiliates” of the platform.
Google says that once users were in the apps, developers made the platform attractive by showing balance and return on investment. The issue was that users were unable to take out their money.
According to Google, sometimes the apps allow you to withdraw small amounts of money or require a commission or minimum balance to be able to withdraw money, ultimately leading to a scam for some more money.
Google has alleged that the developers have breached its terms of service and violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He asks the court to stop them from committing more fraud and to compensate them.