Google Sues Outsider Enterprise Over Gemini-Assisted Phishing and Smishing

Google filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Outsider Enterprise, an alleged China-based cybercrime network accused of abusing Gemini and other AI tools to build phishing websites and support large-scale smishing campaigns targeting U.S. consumers. Google said the Telegram-based operation functioned as a phishing-as-a-service platform, offering more than 290 prebuilt templates and infrastructure used to impersonate brands and institutions including Google, YouTube, USPS, banks, DMVs, mobile carriers, and E-ZPass in order to steal credentials and payment information.

According to Google, the campaign was tied to more than 9,000 fake websites, over 1 million fraudulent URLs, and roughly 2.5 million smishing messages sent to Android users during a two-week period in May, while users reported at least 55,000 related spam texts and losses reached millions of dollars across hundreds of thousands of victims. The company said it has disabled abusive accounts and infrastructure, is coordinating disruption efforts with the FBI Cyber Division and major U.S. carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, and is pursuing claims under RICO and the Lanham Act as part of a broader effort to curb AI-enabled scam operations.