ZATAZ » Google sues alleged investment app developers

Google has filed suit against two developers accused of creating fraudulent investment apps and uploading them to the Google Play Store.

Defendants Yunfeng Sun and Hongnam Cheung, said to be based in Shenzhen and Hong Kong respectively, allegedly developed and made available 87 applications used to carry out cyber frauds. According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, some of the apps were used for so-called “pig butchering” scams.

Pig butchering: the scam that mistakes you for a ham

There ” pig butchering is a tactic used in some financial scams where fraudsters target individuals to extort money from them. The term comes from the English expression “pig butcher”, which literally means “butcher of pigs”.

In the context of financial fraud, pig butchering often involves gaining the victim’s trust through personal communications, such as phone calls, text messages or emails. Scammers can use a variety of methods to establish an emotional connection with the victim, such as pretending they made a mistake by sending a message to the wrong person or pretending to be a friend or family member.

Once fraudsters have gained the victim’s trust, they seek to convince them to invest money in supposedly legitimate financial products or investment opportunities. However, these investments are actually scams designed to extort money from victims.

Pig butchering often involves emotional and psychological manipulation on the part of fraudsters to trick victims into acting quickly and unsuspectingly. Victims may be lured into investing large sums of money by promising high returns or unique opportunities, but end up losing their money when the fraudsters disappear with the funds or when the investments turn out to be frauds.

Deceptive tactics to scam users

The defendants or their “agents” sent messages via Google Voice to people primarily in the United States and Canada claiming to have been sent to the wrong number, such as: “ I miss you all the time, how are your parents Damien?“.

After apologizing for the mistake, they would attempt to establish a relationship with the victim before finally convincing them to download an investment app and deposit funds.

“ When victims try to withdraw funds, they are unable to do so. Fraudsters often respond to attempts to withdraw funds by requesting additional investments, taxes or fees, promising that these payments will allow victims to access their accounts. » indicates US justice.

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Exploitation of social networks to target victims

The defendants also allegedly created a company targeting Ghanaians called Starlight Project in early 2022, even opening an office in the town of Hohoe. Via Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and during physical events, the company encouraged people to download the Starlight application. The application was offered as a way to earn money by watching videos on Youtube.

In reality, they were required to deposit money to start “earning” and were never able to withdraw their funds.

Google fights against misleading apps

According to the lawsuit, Google uses human and “automatic” reviews to prevent misleading apps in its store, but developers have repeatedly tried to circumvent them by misrepresenting their identity, location, and type and content. nature of the proposed application. Google says at least 100,000 people have downloaded the fraudulent apps from its store.

A growing problem with online fraud

Online investment fraud has become a billion-dollar industry linked to transnational criminal networks. According to the FBI, investment fraud led to a loss of $4.57 billion in the United States last year, with nearly $4 billion linked to cryptocurrency fraud. As I was able to explain in my column on M6 and RTL in the show “ It can happen to you“, frauds which can take many forms, such as invest it in wine, cognac, champagne, whiskey or even sake, Japanese alcohol.