Google filed a lawsuit against a Chinese cybercrime network in New York.
"A massive AI-powered scam targets Americans, sparking a joint lawsuit with the FBI."
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the "Outsider Enterprise" used Google's AI system Gemini to target hundreds of thousands of Americans with financial fraud. According to the complaint, the defendants built 131 software kits that could create thousands of fake websites impersonating Google, YouTube, the Postal Service, and New York's E-ZPass toll system.
The operation was coordinated through Telegram, with the network sending 2.5 million messages to Android users containing links to 9,000 fake websites and more than a million fraudulent URLs over a two-week stretch in May. Google's General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado said it's the first lawsuit where the company is working alongside the FBI and carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Google is seeking a restraining order that would give companies and law enforcement the legal basis to shut the network down together by seizing domains or freezing accounts, for example. The exact damage is still unknown, but Google said it runs into the millions, according to the New York Times.
Brett Leatherman, Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division, told the Times that criminals are increasingly using AI to make scams more convincing and harder to spot. The FBI pegged total cybercrime losses in 2025 at roughly $21 billion, with $893 million tied to AI.
Around the same time, OpenAI released its June 2026 Threat Report and banned two ChatGPT clusters allegedly based in China that tried to manipulate debates around US tech policy. The operators used VPNs and prompted in simplified Chinese.
The first cluster, which OpenAI dubbed "Data Center Bandwagon," generated English-language comments, comic strips, and edited images pushing the message that AI data center expansion is driving up electricity prices for average families. The content was spread through likely inauthentic X accounts using hashtags like #capacityauction and #datacenters.
OpenAI traces the actors to a private Chinese tech company working on behalf of Chinese provincial authorities. The same accounts attacked dissidents like activist Li Ying ("Teacher Li") and posed as Chinese immigrants living in the US.
The second cluster, "Tech and Tariffs," produced cartoons attacking Trump's tariff policy and the US strategy of technological dominance. The prompts explicitly told the model not to depict China or President Xi Jinping. One user referred to their own accounts as a "water army," a common Chinese term for coordinated troll networks.
This cluster was tied to an X network that tried to discredit OpenAI itself with the false claim that ChatGPT user data had been compromised. The actors also asked ChatGPT for an approach to building an AI surveillance system that would automatically flag "harmful" content from "key individuals."
OpenAI says the model only returned general tips on data storage. Ben Nimmo, OpenAI's lead investigator, told Axios the influence operations didn't create the debate, they latched onto an existing discussion and tried to steer it from China.
On OpenAI's Breakout Scale, both operations scored just Category 1, meaning they didn't spread beyond their own accounts in any meaningful way. The implications of these operations are significant, as they demonstrate the growing use of AI in cybercrime and influence campaigns.
As the use of AI becomes more widespread, it's likely that we'll see more sophisticated and convincing scams. The fact that Google and OpenAI are working together with law enforcement to take down these operations is a positive step, but it's clear that more needs to be done to prevent these types of attacks in the future.
The Chinese government has been accused of using AI for surveillance and censorship, and these latest operations suggest that they may be expanding their use of AI to influence debates and manipulate public opinion in other countries.
The US government has been warning about the risks of Chinese cybercrime and influence operations for years, and these latest operations demonstrate the need for continued vigilance and cooperation between companies and law enforcement.
In the end, the key to preventing these types of attacks will be a combination of technology, law enforcement, and international cooperation. As the use of AI continues to grow, it's essential that we prioritize cybersecurity and work together to prevent the misuse of this powerful technology.
