Illustration: The Verge
Google is suing an alleged scammer for running an elaborate scheme to flood its search product with fake businesses and reviews.
In the complaint filed Friday, Google accuses the defendant, Ethan Hu, of abusing the company’s products “to create fake online listings for businesses that do not exist, and to bolster them with fake reviews from people who do not exist.” After establishing the fake companies, Hu and 20 unnamed co-defendants allegedly sold these fake listings to other businesses looking to promote their own services in Google’s search results.
Over the last two years, Google says the defendants created over 350 fake business profiles that received at least 14,000 fake reviews. While Google can automatically create listings…