Google launches legal proceedings against scammers

Google has announced a new legal action against a group of scammers who have been trying to con business owners by contacting them and offering to charge them for access to Google My Business. This is in response to a recent victory in a court case against a Russian-originated bot network.
According to Google, scammers are calling business owners and attempting to charge them for accessing their free Google Business Profiles.
It has also been reported that more than 12 million efforts made by criminals to create false business profiles were spotted and stopped in 2021 alone, as were almost 8 million attempts to claim Business Profiles that did not belong to them.
With this new legal effort, Google hopes to set a precedent that will make it easier for it to deal with fraud of this nature in the future. It is a crucial push, especially for less tech-savvy business owners, who are aware that they must concentrate on Google and SEO but are unaware that they may already access such tools for free.
It’s encouraging to see Google and Meta stepping up their efforts to battle these swindles, as it will assist to reenergize the judicial system for dealing with contemporary internet fraud. While Meta has undertaken several of legal proceedings this year, including those targeting phishing, fraudulent reviews, data scraping, and other issues. LinkedIn just won a court victory in its lawsuit against the practice.
Many of these activities lack clear legal precedents, and many of these more recent components and parts are not covered by the laws as they currently stand.
AI generators are the latest example, which can produce images similar to artists’ work without infringing on their copyright.
It’s cases like these, brought by the tech giants, that help to establish new approaches, which account for tech advances – and as such, the more well-resourced companies must look to push such, which will benefit all.