Google is suing a Chinese cybercrime network that used its own AI tool against it. The group — called Outsider Enterprise — ran a phishing-as-a-service operation through Telegram, and Gemini was a key part of their toolkit.
According to Google’s legal filing, Outsider Enterprise offered nearly 300 scam templates. They showed less-technical criminals how to use Google’s Gemini AI to build fake websites mimicking Google, YouTube, and government agencies like New York’s E-ZPass. If you couldn’t build a phishing page yourself, they’d sell you the know-how.
Google worked with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to block malicious text messages tied to the operation. The company also points to its on-device scam detection in Google Messages as a likely disruptor — that feature reportedly stops 10 billion scam texts every month.
Security expert Bruce Schneier, who flagged the story, isn’t sure the lawsuit will actually stop anything. But he supports the effort. Lawsuits against overseas cybercrime operations are notoriously hard to enforce, especially when the operators are based in China.
Still, suing sends a message. And the carrier-level blocking combined with on-device AI detection means the group’s reach was probably already limited. Whether the legal system can do what technical defenses couldn’t is another question entirely.
