In a first for the tech giant, Google filed a consumer protection lawsuit to shield the vulnerable and unsuspecting from what it called a “nefarious” scheme: the sale of adorable, but imaginary, puppies.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., claims that Nche Noel Ntse, a Cameroon man, 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 “adorable” and “alluring” photographs of purebred puppies, together with “compelling testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers” that exploited 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 remediate” Mr. Ntse’s activities, and is suing him for financial damages, citing harm to the company’s relationship with its users and damage to its reputation.
“It seems like a particularly egregious abuse of our products,” Michael Trinh, a lawyer for Google, said by phone on Monday.
The company says it prevents 100 million harmful emails from reaching users daily, but Mr. Trinh said he hoped the suit would go further, making an example of Mr. Ntse. Google decided not to pursue criminal charges in the case because it believed civil litigation would be a faster remedy, Mr. Trinh added. “It’s an ongoing fight.”
The case is Google’s first consumer…
