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In a first for the tech giant, Google has filed a consumer protection lawsuit to protect the vulnerable and the unsuspecting from what it calls a “despicable” plan: the sale of cute but fictitious puppies.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, alleges Cameroonian Nche Noel Ntse defrauded puppy buyers using a range of Google services, including Gmail accounts, Google Voice numbers, and ads.
Ntse lured his victims with “cute” and “attractive” photos of purebred puppies, along with “convincing testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers” that exploited the high demand for puppies in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.
Google said it had spent more than $75,000 “investigating and correcting” Mr. Ntse’s operations and sued him for financial damages, arguing that it had damaged the company’s relationship and reputation with its users.
“It appears to be a particularly gruesome abuse of our products,” Google attorney Michael Trinh said by phone on Monday.
company says It blocks 100 million malicious emails daily from reaching users, but Mr. Trinh took Mr. Ntse as an example, saying he hoped the case would go further. Mr Trinh added that Google has decided not to press charges in the case because it believes civil litigation will be a faster resolution. “It’s an ongoing struggle.”
Company spokesman José Castañeda said the case was Google’s first consumer protection case. He added that, based on the expanding network of sites managed by Mr. Ntse, Google estimates that the victims lost more than $1 million in total.
Google’s legal action comes after the pandemic has caused an increase in demand for pets, as well as a surge in plans that take advantage of this desire.
Last year, consumers reported that they lost more than $5.8 billion to fraud, an increase of more than 70 percent from 2020. Federal Trade Commission data. According to the Better Business Bureau, online shopping scams in particular have skyrocketed during the pandemic. The group will investigate pet fraud in 2021. made up 35 percent such reports
Google first became aware of Mr. Ntse’s activities in September 2021 after receiving an abuse report from AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans.
According to the report, a person living in South Carolina looking for a dog contacted Mr. Ntse via email after visiting a now defunct website he runs. After contacting Mr. Ntse via email and text, the person then sent him $700 in electronic gift cards, the report said, “The victim never received 1 dog.”
According to the subpoena, Mr. Ntse lives in Douala, a port city in Cameroon with more than two million people. The lawsuit ruled other websites, including those that allegedly sold marijuana and prescription opioid cough syrup.
“When you go to pick up a puppy, you don’t expect to have a criminal on the other side,” said runner Paul Brady. PetScams.comtracking and reporting websites that falsely claim to sell animals.
Usually located outside of the United States, scammers post photos and videos of puppies at low prices and demand upfront online payments and invented additional costs, sometimes like pet quarantine or delivery fees.
Mr Brady said such schemes have “exploded” in the past two years as scammers take advantage of people’s loneliness and lockdowns that have limited their ability to travel far from home to get a puppy.
“People sit alone and want the company of an animal,” he added, recalling a particularly shocking incident in which a woman spent $25,000 to purchase a Pomeranian puppy.
For 28-year-old Rael Raskovich, the experience of being cheated on by an online pet scheme was devastating.
Raskovich, who had worked in the mortgage industry about a year ago, had just moved to South Carolina and was hoping to have her first puppy, a Golden Retriever.
She explored her options and eventually told her that she had led her to believe the process was legitimate by filling out an online form that was now obsolete and containing detailed questions about her plans to care for the animal.
He wired the seller a $700 deposit, and the seller sent him a video of what he thought would soon be a puppy. She bought toys and a dog bed.
He then said that the seller claimed he needed an additional $1300 for a coronavirus vaccine for the dog and an air-conditioned shipping crate. Ms. Raskovitch said she was told to expect something. A call from Delta Air Lines, where the seller claimed it would transport the animal – but when he called to confirm, the airline said they had not sent him an animal.
“Then I said, ‘Okay, that’s definitely not legitimate’,” he said, adding that he cut off communication. The identity of the seller was never determined.
“Prepare for this new addition in your life,” said Ms. Raskovich. “This sucks.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed to the reporting.
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