Google filed a lawsuit against two app developers who defrauded thousands of investors by uploading fake apps to the Play Store, according to a Bloomberg report.
The search engine giant said it received numerous complaints and spent nearly $75,000 investigating the allegations. The lawsuit was filed in the Federal Court of New York, and Google asked the court to ensure that these individuals could not commit more fraud. It has also asked the court to award it an unspecified amount in damages.
According to its lawsuit, Yunfeng Sun in Shenzhen and Hongnam Cheung in Hong Kong have uploaded 87 fake cryptocurrency trading apps on the Play Store since 2019. They lure potential victims with YouTube videos, social media ads, and press releases. They also use random messages and emails to strike a conversation and build trust with the investors.
While his apps would allow investors to invest and earn returns, they would keep them from withdrawing large amounts. Instead, they would ask for more investments to retrieve their returns. When investors become too edgy, they would disappear.
Google’s lawsuit revealed that the alleged scammers would use romance scam techniques, commonly known as pig-butchering, to deceive their victims and steal the maximum amount of money.
As the cryptocurrency market gains more traction, so does the frequency of related scams. A recent development in this domain implicates a prominent YouTuber in a string of cryptocurrency scams totaling more than $1.5 million.
