Google sues China-based Outsider Enterprise over AI text scams

Google filed a lawsuit on June 12 against a China-based cybercrime network it identifies as Outsider Enterprise, accusing the group of operating large-scale phishing campaigns powered by artificial intelligence tools, including Google’s Gemini.

The complaint links outbound messages to about 9,000 fake websites, more than 1 million fraudulent URLs and roughly 2.5 million text messages. Google says hundreds of thousands of victims lost a combined total in the millions of dollars.

According to the filing, the operation coordinated on Telegram and sold phishing kits that enabled buyers to send high volumes of spoofed texts impersonating Google and other brands. Google alleges the kits hosted pages designed to harvest account credentials or payment information.

The company describes the operation as automated, saying AI was used to draft realistic scam messages and vary content at scale to reduce manual effort. Google reports Android users flagged about 55,000 spam texts in May during the period cited in the complaint.

Google is pursuing the case alongside the FBI, which is preparing enforcement actions, and is coordinating with U.S. carriers AT&T, T‑Mobile and Verizon to block malicious messages. The complaint names core software developers and infrastructure providers the company alleges supported the scheme and seeks to permanently dismantle the operation.

Google also said its messaging defenses intercept more than 10 billion malicious messages each month and that Android’s scam detection flags suspicious calls and contacts in real time.

Brett Leatherman of the FBI Cyber Division warned, “Criminals increasingly use AI to make fraud like this more convincing and harder to detect.” The bureau is working with Google and other partners on potential law enforcement steps tied to the case.

Alongside the lawsuit, Google is backing seven bipartisan bills aimed at curbing scams, including the National Strategy for Combating Scams Act and the Stop SCAMS Against Seniors Act. The company is also working with carriers to limit delivery of the fraudulent texts and to take down the related websites as part of the enforcement effort.

The complaint highlights the use of automated templates and AI-generated content to increase the volume and believability of scam texts and is part of a coordinated effort between a major tech firm and federal agencies to address cross-border text fraud.