Online fraud is highly disruptive, and can have a painful financial and emotional impact on people. Google is committed to tackling this challenge head-on. As part of that effort, this week, experts from across government, technology, consumer groups and academia are gathering in Zurich for the second EMEA Anti-Scams and Fraud Summit, hosted by the Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC). The goal is simple but ambitious: Strengthen the collective action needed to disrupt today’s sophisticated scams.
To support this mission, we’re building AI-driven protections into the products you use every day and collaborating across the industry and with the authorities to stay ahead of fraudsters. Here are five ways we are working to keep you safer from scams and fraud:
1. Using AI-powered tools as the first line of defense
While scammers are using AI for nefarious purposes, we’re using it for…
CLICK HERE to read the FULL Our fight against fraud: 5 ways we're keeping you safer article.
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025