Google Files Lawsuit Against Alleged Crypto Scammers for Counterfeit Apps

Google has taken legal action against individuals allegedly involved in cryptocurrency scams by uploading fraudulent investment applications to Google Play.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, names Yunfeng Sun, also known as Alphonse Sun, and Hongnam Cheung, alternately known as Zhang Hongnim or Stanford Fischer, along with their associates.

The lawsuit stated that the defendants made:

"…multiple misrepresentations to Google in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including but not limited to, misrepresentations about their identity, location, and the type and nature of the application being uploaded."

They are accused of committing hundreds of acts of wire fraud, causing harm to Google and approximately 100,000 users.

Victims were enticed to download the apps with promises of high investment returns in cryptocurrencies and other products, which turned out to be deceptive.

When users attempted to withdraw their funds, they were asked to pay various fees to recover their investments and supposed profits.

One notable example mentioned in the lawsuit is the TionRT app, purportedly a crypto exchange platform uploaded to Google Play in 2022 by an account linked to Sun.

The scammers used various communication platforms to lure victims with promises of financial gain, only to leave them empty-handed when they tried to withdraw funds.

Google Steps Up Against Crypto Scammers

Operating since at least 2019, the defendants are accused of creating and distributing over 87 fraudulent applications through Google Play, deceiving over 100,000 users globally.

These apps posed as legitimate investment and cryptocurrency exchange platforms but were tools for a large-scale deception.

Google responded by removing the malicious apps and deploying a dedicated cybersecurity team to detect and neutralise threats across its services.

The lawsuit seeks damages exceeding $75,000 to cover investigative costs and resources spent on maintaining platform security.

Additionally, Google aims to obtain a permanent injunction preventing the defendants and their associates from creating Google accounts or accessing its services in the future.

Halimah DeLaine Prado, general counsel at Google, expressed that:

"This is a unique opportunity for us to use our resources to actually combat bad actors who were running an extensive crypto scheme to defraud some of our users. This [lawsuit] allows us to not only use our resources to protect users, but to also serve as sort of a precedent to future bad actors that we don't tolerate this behaviour."