Google initiated legal action against two distinct groups of scammers exploiting the company's platforms and users. The first case involves scammers leveraging the burgeoning interest in Generative AI (GenAI) tools, specifically through fake downloads of Google's AI chatbot named 'Bard' to disseminate malware. These perpetrators established fraudulent social media pages and ran deceptive ads urging individuals to "download" Bard, a readily accessible GenAI tool that, in truth, does not require downloading. Instead, these ads maliciously redirected users to download malware, leading to the compromise of their social media accounts. While Google refrained from disclosing the identities of the accused, they suspect the perpetrators to be operating from Vietnam.

The second lawsuit claims that a group of scammers orchestrated a strategy involving the establishment of numerous Google accounts, leveraging these accounts, they systematically submitted a multitude of spurious copyright claims against Google's competitors and other organisations. This scam resulted in the removal of more than 100,000 business websites, inflicting substantial financial losses and causing thousands of hours in productivity loss for the affected entities.

Why does it matter?

Google's complaint seems to be the first action taken by a major technology firm to combat the rising number of AI-related online frauds. Google's lawsuits aim to set a legal precedent, disrupt the methods used by scammers, and raise the consequences for malicious actors.

Google is suing the defendants in the US for trademark infringement for using its logos and hosting the scams on Google Sites and Google Drive. The company is seeking a court order to block the scammers from registering domains and allow them to have them disabled by US domain registrars. This could serve as a deterrent and a strong signal to provide a clear instrument for thwarting future scams.
Google's actions underline the emerging legal issues as the GenAI fever continues to flood countries across the globe. The company has already submitted around 300 takedown requests related to these scammers.