Google filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a group of crypto scammers, alleging they defrauded more than 100,000 people across the globe by uploading fraudulent investment and crypto exchange apps to Google Play. Google says it's the first tech company to take action against crypto scammers, and is doing so as a way to set a legal precedent to establish protections for users. The lawsuit claims the defendants made "multiple misrepresentations to Google in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including but not limited to misrepresentations about their identity, location, and the type and nature of the application being uploaded." Sun, Cheung and their agents designed the apps to appear legitimate, showing users that they were maintaining balances on the app and earning returns on their investments, the lawsuit said. However, users couldn't withdraw their investments or purported gains.

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Persons: Halimah DeLaine Prado, Sun, Alphonse Sun, Hongnam Cheung, Zhang Hongnim, Stanford Fischer, Cheung, couldn't Organizations: Google, CNBC Crypto, of Locations: Southern, of New York, U.S, Canada