Scammers used Gemini AI to power a massive phishing operation and Google just sued them – Digital Trends

Home AI Scammers used Gemini AI to power a massive phishing operation and Google just sued them – Digital Trends
Scammers used Gemini AI to power a massive phishing operation and Google just sued them – Digital Trends

That suspicious text about an unpaid toll, a delayed delivery package, or expiring rewards points may no longer be the work of a lone scammer. These scam texts have been flooding American phones for years, but something has changed.
Google says artificial intelligence is helping fraudsters run larger and more convincing operations than ever before. The company has now filed a lawsuit against a cybercrime network that used Gemini AI to create phishing websites and power a massive scam campaign targeting millions of users.
Google’s lawsuit targets a Chinese cybercrime network called the Outsider Enterprise. The group coordinated through Telegram and distributed phishing kits to criminals around the world.
Using Google’s Gemini AI, they built fake websites impersonating trusted brands like Google, YouTube, and even the US Postal Service. They used AI to create hundreds of imposter websites at a scale that simply was not possible before.
The group created over 9,000 fake websites and more than one million fraudulent URLs. In just two weeks ending June 1, Android users flagged 55,000 suspicious texts, and the Outsider Enterprise sent 2.5 million messages containing links to fake websites.
The FBI estimates the operation has stolen 3.87 million credit card numbers from victims across dozens of countries, with total losses reaching $1.9 billion since July 2023 (via WSJ).
Google is asking a New York federal court to shut down the operation entirely. The company is working alongside the FBI and carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block these texts before they reach your phone.
Google’s built-in messaging defenses already intercept over 10 billion malicious messages every month, and Android’s scam detection tool flags suspicious calls and contacts in real time.
Google is also pushing for seven bipartisan bills in Congress to make these protections permanent, arguing that legal action alone will not be enough to stop a threat that AI has made effectively limitless.
Samsung is already a few weeks into testing One UI 9 with Galaxy S26 beta users, and a new feature spotted in the latest build feels long overdue. It is the network speed indicator, a simple status bar tool so common on other Android phones that it is surprising Galaxy phones have gone this long without it.
You can find this feature even on budget Android phones from brands like OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi. It shows real-time upload and download activity in the status bar while the phone is connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data, giving users a quick way to check whether their connection is actually moving data.
If you have been holding off on a new phone hoping for a better deal, perhaps a discount on a model launched in the first quarter of the year, Nothing’s co-founder Carl Pei has a blunt message for you: stop waiting. 
In a post on X, Pei explained how 2026 is reshaping smartphone pricing like never before. The culprit, to no one’s surprise, is a component that now makes up more than 50% of the total hardware bill.
Wikipedia has spent decades being the internet’s favorite rabbit hole. You visit to check one fact, and somehow end up reading about ancient empires, obscure inventors, or a centuries-old battle you never knew existed. Now, the online encyclopedia is leaning into that curiosity with a new game for iPhone users — and it might be one of its smartest ideas yet.
Called Which came first? The new feature has arrived in the latest version of Wikipedia’s iOS app, after debuting on Android. The concept is wonderful: players are shown a series of historical events and must determine which one happened earlier. There are five questions to answer each day, and every event is tied to something that occurred on that particular date in history. In an era where mobile games often demand endless grinding, battle passes, or suspiciously timed notifications, there’s something refreshing about a game that simply asks you to think for a minute.
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