Google sues Chinese cybercrime unit for Gemini AI fraud scheme | #cybercrime | #infosec

Google is suing a Chinese cybercrime operation, accusing it of using its Gemini AI technology to commit fraud. If you ever received one of those spam texts threatening you for unpaid E-ZPass tolls, it’s very likely you were seeing the organization in action, according to Google.

The company says a Chinese group called Outsider Enterprise used Gemini to create websites that imitated Google, YouTube, the U.S. Postal Service and New York’s E-ZPass toll service websites. It distributed “phishing kits” allowing users to send out fake text message campaigns that looked like the real thing.

The size of the operation is enormous, Google says, estimating that hundreds of thousands of victims have been scammed out of millions of dollars. The group is connected to 9,000 fake websites and more than 1 million fraudulent URLs. Android users alone flagged 55,000 spam texts over two weeks in May, the company said, and 2.5 million messages were sent to Android users with Outsider-generated links.

Google is seeking a restraining order to shut down the network and says it’s working with the FBI, along with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to block the texts before they reach consumers.

“The criminals behind the Outsider Enterprise built a business out of impersonating trusted brands to defraud hundreds of thousands of victims,” said Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, in a statement.

Google is also pushing for federal legislation to fight online scams, including those created with AI, advocating for seven bipartisan bills that seek to address issues like scams against seniors.

One of the bills, the Stop Schemes, Cyber-fraud, Abuse, Manipulation, and Swindles (SCAMS) Act would create a government task force led by the FBI “to prevent and respond to a wide range of scams.”

The online fraud goes beyond just spam, said SCAMS Act co-sponsor Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. “It is organized transnational crime moving through our phones, and it demands a response as coordinated and aggressive as the threat itself,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “Google’s action is a major step in disrupting one of these networks, and it proves a larger point: no company, agency or sector can fight this alone.”