tl;dr
html Google is taking legal action against Chinese nationals Yunfeng Sun and Hongnam Cheung, accusing them of using fake Android apps and social engineering to defraud Google Play App Store customers. The scammers allegedly lured victims through text messages, developing fake friendships and romanti...
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Google is taking legal action against Chinese nationals Yunfeng Sun and Hongnam Cheung, accusing them of using fake Android apps and social engineering to defraud Google Play App Store customers. The scammers allegedly lured victims through text messages, developing fake friendships and romantic attachments, and convinced them to invest money into fake apps. After allowing only small withdrawals, they disappeared when larger withdrawals were attempted. The duo also used various tactics, including YouTube videos and fake press releases, to create the appearance of legitimacy. As a result, Google disabled 87 fake apps linked to the bad actors that were downloaded a combined 100,000 times worldwide.
Tech giant Google is reportedly launching a lawsuit against crypto scammers who allegedly employed fake Android apps to reel in their victims. According to a new report from Reuters, Google is suing Chinese nationals Yunfeng Sun and Hongnam Cheung in New York, accusing them of stealing tens and thousands of dollars worth of digital assets from Google Play App Store customers. Google says that the duo engaged in social engineering to defraud people, luring them to their fake Android apps through text messages. As stated in Google’s complaint, according to Reuters, “The texts would purport to be from wrong numbers, but then the texters would strike up conversations with the victims, developing ‘friendships’ and ‘romantic attachments.’” Google says the scammers would then convince their targets to invest money into fake apps and would only allow them to withdraw small amounts of their “returns” before disappearing completely. “When users tried to withdraw larger amounts of their ‘earnings,’ they were told to pay more money. When victims complained to the ‘friend’ or ‘romantic partner’ who had so helpfully guided them through the process, the ‘friend’ or ‘romantic partner’ would simply disappear.” The search engine giant says that Sun and Cheung also used YouTube videos, fake press releases, and social media marketing to give their apps an appearance of legitimacy. Google said it had to disable 87 fake apps that were downloaded a combined 100,000 times worldwide linked to the bad actors, according to the report.
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