In a first for the tech giant, Google has filed a consumer protection lawsuit to protect the vulnerable and unsuspecting from what it called a “nefarious” scheme: the sale of cute but imaginary puppies.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in US court in San Jose, California, alleges that Nche Noel Ntse, a man from Cameroon, defrauded would-be puppy buyers using a range of Google services, including Gmail accounts, Google Voice numbers and advertisements.
Mr Ntse lured his victims with “cute” and “appealing” photos of purebred puppies, along with “convincing testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers” taking advantage of the high demand for puppies in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, according to court documents.
Google says it spent more than $75,000 to “investigate and restore” Mr. Ntse’s operations, and is suing him for financial damages, citing damage to the company’s relationship with its users and damage to its users. reputation.
“It seems like a particularly blatant misuse of our products,” Michael Trinh, a Google attorney, said by phone on Monday.
The company says it will prevent 100 million malicious emails from reaching users daily, but Mr Trinh said he hoped the lawsuit would go further and set an example for Mr Ntse. Google decided not to pursue criminal charges in the case, as it believed a civil suit would be a faster solution, Mr Trinh added. “It’s an ongoing battle.”
The case is Google’s first consumer protection lawsuit, said José Castañeda, a company spokesperson. He added that based on Mr Ntse’s extensive network of sites, Google estimates that the victims lost more than $1 million in total.
Google’s legal action comes after the pandemic has increased demand for pets, as well as an increase in programs that take advantage of that desire.
Last year, consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud, an increase of more than 70 percent from 2020, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. According to the Better Business Bureau, online shopping in particular has skyrocketed during the pandemic. The group estimates that by 2021, pet-related fraud accounted for 35 percent of such reports.
Google first became aware of Mr. Ntse’s activities around September 2021 after receiving a report of abuse from AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans.
According to the report, a person living in South Carolina in search of a dog contacted Mr. Ntse by email after visiting a website he operated but which is now defunct. After corresponding with Mr. Ntse by email and text, the person later sent him $700 worth of electronic gift cards, the report said, adding, “Victim 1 never received the puppy.”
According to the subpoena, Mr Ntse is based in Douala, a port city of more than two million inhabitants in Cameroon. He operated other websites, including one that claimed to sell prescription marijuana and opiate cough syrup, the lawsuit says.
“If you’re going to buy a puppy, you don’t expect a criminal to be on the other side,” says Paul Brady, who runs PetScams.com, which tracks down and reports websites that falsely claim to sell animals.
Scammers, often outside of the United States, post photos and videos of puppies at discount prices and charge upfront online payments and sometimes additional made-up fees, such as animal quarantine or delivery charges.
Such plans have “exploded” in the past two years, Mr Brady said, as scammers took advantage of people’s loneliness and took advantage of lockdowns that limited their ability to travel far from home to pick up a puppy.
“People sit alone and they want the company of an animal,” he added, recalling a particularly shocking incident where a woman spent $25,000 trying to buy a Pomeranian puppy.
For Rael Raskovich, 28, the experience of being cheated on by an online pet plan was devastating.
About a year ago, Mrs. Raskovich, who works in the mortgage industry, had just moved to South Carolina and was hoping to buy her first puppy: a Golden Retriever.
She explored her options and eventually filled out an online form, now defunct, asking detailed questions about her plans to care for the animal, she said, leading her to believe the process was legit.
She transferred a $700 deposit to the seller, who sent her a video of what she thought was her soon-to-be puppy. She bought toys and a dog bed.
Then, she said, the seller claimed he needed an additional $1,300 for a coronavirus vaccination for the dog and an air-conditioned shipping crate. Mrs. Raskovich said she was told she had a… phone call from Delta Air Lines, which the seller claimed would carry the animal — but when she called to confirm, the airline told her it doesn’t ship animals.
“Then I thought, ‘Okay, this is definitely not legit,'” she said, adding that she cut off communication. The identity of the seller has never been established.
“You are getting ready for this new addition to your life,” said Ms. Raskovich. “It sucks.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed reporting.
