Google filed a lawsuit against a Chinese cybercrime network called Outsider Enterprise, accusing the group of using Gemini AI to automate large-scale scams. The network operated through Telegram, offering phishing-as-a-service to non-technical criminals who needed help creating fraudulent websites and text campaigns.

Outsider Enterprise allegedly provided nearly 300 scam templates showing how to use Google's AI to mimic legitimate sites like YouTube, government agencies, and Google's own services. The operation sent 2.5 million malicious text messages to Android users, with about 55,000 arriving in just a two-week period last month. Google tracked 9,000 fake websites and over 1 million URLs connected to the network.

The scam texts typically claimed account issues or package delivery problems, tricking users into clicking links that led to Gemini-generated fake sites designed to steal personal data and banking details. Google collaborated with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to block these messages, while its on-device scam detection in Google Messages likely prevented many successful attacks.

Google's AI-powered scam detection system stops approximately 10 billion fraudulent texts monthly, suggesting it caught significant portions of Outsider Enterprise's activity. The lawsuit represents Google's latest effort to combat AI-enabled criminal operations while protecting users from increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns.