Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to scam ‘hundreds of thousands of victims’ sued by Google
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- Google filed a federal lawsuit against Chinese cybercrime network Outsider Enterprise, alleging the group used AI to generate scam texts impersonating Google and other brands to steal passwords and credit card numbers.
- Outsider Enterprise deployed 9,000 fake websites, 1 million fraudulent web domains, and 2.5 million scam texts to Android users in just two weeks, hitting "hundreds of thousands of victims" with losses "estimated in the millions."
- The FBI, working with Google and Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, seized domains, Shopify storefronts, and accounts tied to the operation, which since July 2023 enabled the theft of at least 3,870,000 credit cards and approximately $1.9 billion in losses.
- The Outsider phishing software costs $88 per week or $200 per month, offers more than 290 pre-built templates, and uses AI platforms including Google's own Gemini to generate replica phishing sites in minutes.
- The cybercriminals coordinated on Telegram and used Google Drive and Google Cloud to host phishing sites, with Google detecting 1.59 million related URLs between November 2025 and April 2026.
- Google partnered with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block scam texts and said its AI-powered tools now intercept more than 10 billion scam messages per month.
Why it matters: The lawsuit targets an operation that weaponized Google's own Gemini AI to build phishing sites and used Google Drive and Cloud to host them — meaning Google was simultaneously the impersonated brand, the toolmaker, and the unwitting infrastructure provider. The 3.87 million stolen cards and $1.9 billion in losses show that telecom-blocking partnerships were not enough to contain a subscription-priced phishing service anyone could buy for $88 a week.
