C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL; DR
- Google is suing two fraudsters it claims compromised the integrity of the Play Store.
- Two fraudsters have been accused of uploading a total of 87 fake crypto apps to the market.
- More than 100,000 people worldwide were affected by the scams.
The Google Play store implements a number of measures to protect users from harmful applications. Despite this, it seems that the two app developers still managed to put a large number of their fake apps on the market. Now Google is suing developers for destroying the integrity of the Play Store.
Business Insider reports that Google has filed a civil lawsuit in New York federal court against two app developers. The company accuses the two of being crypto scammers who tricked it into hosting fake apps on its app store.
Two scammers — one from Shenzhen, China, and the other from Hong Kong — allegedly created cryptocurrency exchanges and investment apps that look legitimate. Allegedly, these two men then through various promotions convinced the victims to deposit money through the apps, but did not allow the victims to withdraw their money, regardless of whether they earned or not.
In the filing, the tech giant says the scams have affected over 100,000 people from around the world. These victims were allegedly defrauded from $100 to tens of thousands of dollars.
For its part, Google says it was able to identify the fake apps and shut them down. However, when one closed, another would eventually take its place. The lawsuit alleges that fraudsters were able to trick Google into hosting new fake apps by misrepresenting their identity, location and intent. In total, the pair managed to upload 87 fake crypto apps to the platform.
The company claims to have spent more than $75,000 investigating these scams. However, the company appears to be more upset about Google Play’s reputation than the money it lost, as it allegedly mentions “integrity” dozens of times in the complaint.