Google Files Lawsuit Against Cybercriminals Distributing Malware Through Fake Bard Downloads

On Monday, Google announced its decision to take legal action against cybercriminals who used fake websites to spread malware under the guise of offering downloads for Bard, Google's chat-based AI tool. Bard, which is only available online and doesn't require downloading, became the bait in this scam.

The lawsuit targets "AI scammers" who created social media pages and advertisements promoting websites that falsely claimed to offer Bard downloads. Victims who visited these sites ended up downloading malware, which gave the cybercriminals control over their social media accounts.

Google's legal move seeks to prevent these scammers from establishing such fraudulent domains and to enable the company to disable them with U.S. domain registrars. The tech giant believes this action will deter similar scams in the future and establish a robust mechanism to thwart them.

Since April, Google has executed around 300 takedowns associated with this fraudulent scheme.

In another legal front, Google is confronting actors who manipulated the DMCA process to harm business competitors. They achieved this by lodging thousands of illegitimate copyright takedown requests through multiple Google accounts, resulting in the removal of over 100,000 websites. This action caused significant financial losses to the affected businesses.

Google's initiative aims to protect the culture of innovation in the United States and create a safer internet environment. By taking these legal steps and collaborating with government authorities, Google hopes to direct the full force of justice towards these scammers, enhancing internet safety for all users.