The tech giant filed a lawsuit on Monday, saying the person responsible has been “perpetrating a puppy fraud scheme to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for personal gain.”
The online posts come with the promise of purebred puppies, with sweet pictures to match. However, court documents list 20 sites, believed to be connected to the defendant.
The suit names a person who is said to live in Africa. The company claims the suspect used several Google services in online puppy scams.
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Court documents claim people were sending hundreds of dollars in exchange for puppies that never arrived. The suspected intent was to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for puppies that came along with it.
“The damage is actually two parts, the emotional and financial,” San Jose State University (SJSU) tech expert Ahmed Banafa said.
He added, to any animal lover- especially one in search of canine companionship- one look at a cute face could be enough to let your guard down.
Court documents uncover Google was tipped off by AARP, which had been contacted by a victim.
ABC7 News asked, “How bad does the scamming have to be for Google to step in in this way?”
“The statistic is out, 35% of the online scam is actually, you know, a puppy scam,” Banafa answered. “So that tells you how bad it…
