Scammers use fake links to Google’s chatbot Bard to steal login data and financial info،
Google announced it today in a blog post that he is pursuing a trio of crooks called “DOES 1-3”
in the trial. The suit alleges that the three companies set up social media sites purporting to contain links to downloads of Google’s AI chatbot, Bard. Instead of Bard, the downloads actually contained malware designed to steal victims’ login credentials. In the suit,
Google claims the scammers attempted to steal financial information belonging to small businesses and advertisers.
The trial is being held in the
United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. Google’s complaint alleges trademark infringement because the scammers used Google logos in their scam. Google also asked the court for a permanent injunction preventing the defendants from continuing to offer the fake Bard download. And Google wants the fraudsters to pay damages, including the money they made while carrying out the scam.
In the blog post, Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s general counsel, wrote: “As public enthusiasm for new generative AI tools increases, fraudsters are increasingly taking advantage of unsuspecting users. We are seeking an order to prevent scammers from creating domains like these and allow us to deactivate them with US domain registrars. If successful, it will serve as a deterrent and provide a clear mechanism to prevent similar scams in the future.
Google has two lawsuits pending to try to stop scammers from harming small businesses and others.
Prado added: “Ensuring your safety online is at the heart of our business. Every day, Gmail blocks over 100 million phishing attempts, Safe Browsing protects over 5 billion devices, and Google Play scans over 100 billion apps. For the latest scams, legal action is a threat. effective tool for establishing legal precedent, disrupting the tools used by fraudsters, and increasing consequences for bad actors. And over the years, we’ve proactively prosecuted fraudsters who prey on vulnerable people, cheat small businesses, and try to extort our users.”
A second lawsuit mentioned in the blog post concerns “bad actors,” as Google calls them, who use fake copyright takedowns to harm competitors. This was done by abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which protects copyright owners while enabling online innovation. Bad actors’ false copyright claims have led to the shutdown of more than 100,000 company websites, “costing them millions of dollars and thousands of lost employee hours.”
Google’s Prado wrote: “Today’s actions are part of our ongoing legal strategy to protect consumers and small businesses and establish necessary legal precedents in emerging areas of innovation.” Clear rules against fraud, scams and harassment are important – no matter how new the context – and we are committed to doing our part to protect people who use the internet from abuse. »