Photo: Matt Cardy (Getty Images)
Google has sued a man for allegedly abusing its services to trick droves of would-be pet owners into giving money for non-existent Basset Hound puppies.
On Monday, the big and powerful search engine filed a lawsuit against Cameroonian Nche Noel Ntse, accusing him of violating Google’s terms of service by using its platforms to take part in a major “puppy scam” conspiracy.
This program, which mainly preyed on elderly people with false promises of adorable floppy-eared companions, allegedly used a variety of online tricks such as fake dog sales websites with false testimonials and “seductive photos” of the (fake) dogs. Ntse is said to have manipulated his victims through one-on-one calls, forcing them to send him money for puppies that would never come.
The scheme was bolstered by “dozens of fraudulent Google accounts” set up using “Gmail and Google Voice… to deliver false promises to victims the fraudulent websites with US internet hosting companies and solicit payments and received,” Google writes in the lawsuit. The lawsuit did not include contact information for Ntse, and attempts by Gizmodo to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
The suit reads in part:
“Defendant Nche Noel Ntse ran a puppy cheating scheme to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for personal gain, thereby preying on unsuspecting and vulnerable victims. Defendant operates multiple non-delivery websites that deceive and defraud Internet users in the United States. Some of these fraudulent websites pretend to sell adorable puppies and victims are tricked into believing the websites are legitimate because of their seductive photos of purebred puppies (see Figure 1) and compelling testimonials from supposedly happy customers.”
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In a blog post published on Monday, Google senior counsel Mike Trinh and CyberCrime Investigation Group manager Albert Shin revealed further details of the lawsuit, which aims to crack down on the scourge of fake dogs and the people who sell them. to fight back.
“Unfortunately, this scam disproportionately targeted older Americans who may be more vulnerable to cyberattacks. The FTC and FBI report that elderly people are scammed out of an estimated $650 million a year, the duo wrote in the blog post. “Therefore, we are taking proactive measures to set a precedent, protect victims, disrupt the scammer’s infrastructure, and raise public awareness. Of course, legal action is just one way we are fighting this type of fraud.”