Google sues an AI-powered text message scam network.

Google sues Outsider Enterprise, a Chinese network using AI to send millions of fake texts to Android users, in a joint operation with the FBI and carriers.

Google is filing a civil lawsuit against "Outsider Enterprise," a cybercrime network which it accuses of industrializing text message scams. Based in China and coordinated via Telegram, the group allegedly distributes "phishing kits" allowing for the mass sending of fake messages impersonating Google and other trusted brands, such as fake delivery alerts or urgent bank warnings.

The operation is coordinated with the FBI, which is conducting its own actions, and with carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block these text messages upstream. Google reports significant figures: hundreds of thousands of victims, estimated losses in the millions of dollars, over nine thousand fake websites and one million fraudulent URLs, as well as 2.5 million messages sent to Android users over two weeks.

In parallel, the company advocates for seven bipartisan bills aimed at making these protections permanent, including the National Strategy for Combatting Scams Act and the Stop SCAMS Act. On the product front, it highlights scam detection on Android and messaging defenses which reportedly intercept over ten billion malicious messages per month.