Google sues scammers pushing fake Bard downloads packed with malware

Whenever a new technology blows up, the scammers are never far behind. Now, Google is taking them to court.

Google filed a lawsuit in California targeting a group of scammers who used the massive hype around generative AI to trick people into downloading malware. The perpetrators, believed to be based in Vietnam, targeted users looking to get their hands on Google's AI chatbot, Bard.

Fake apps, real malware

The scheme exploited people's confusion about how AI services actually work. The scammers ran social media pages and paid for promoted posts, particularly on Facebook, promising a download link for an unreleased or latest desktop version of Google Bard.

In reality, Bard is a completely free, browser-based service accessible at its web address, with no downloadable app required. Unsuspecting users who clicked the download button ended up installing malware designed to hijack their social media credentials.

According to the lawsuit, the three unnamed defendants had zero affiliation with Google. Yet, they boldly plastered Google, Google AI, and Bard trademarks across their ads to make the downloads look official.

Google noted in a blog post that it had already filed around 300 takedown requests tied to these bad actors. Because whack-a-mole takedowns clearly were not enough, Google is now asking the court to block the scammers from creating new malicious domains and to order U.S. domain registrars to shut them down.

Google general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado stated that lawsuits are an effective way to establish legal precedents, disrupt scam infrastructure, and raise the stakes for bad actors.

Why it matters

We saw this exact script play out during the crypto boom, and now generative AI is the hot new bait for cybercriminals.

For regular users, the takeaway is simple: almost all leading frontier AI models currently run directly in the browser or inside official mobile app stores. If an ad prompts you to download a random desktop executable to run Bard, it is almost certainly a trap.

We think Google's move to file a lawsuit against overseas scammers is clever. Catching anonymous fraudsters based in Vietnam might be nearly impossible, but getting a binding U.S. court order allows Google to target domain registrars and legally choke off the infrastructure these groups rely on.

At the same time, this lawsuit highlights a frustrating reality. If Google itself had to file 300 individual takedown requests just to fight copycat ads on platforms like Facebook, the platforms' automated fraud detection is still falling alarmingly short.