Google hits Darcula cybercrime operation with lawsuit

NBC News reports that Google has filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against Chinese-speaking cybercriminal operation Darcula, which has offered the Magic Cat software to facilitate widespread phishing scams spoofing the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service.

Almost 900,000 credit cards, nearly 40,000 of which are from Americans, have been pilfered as part of Darcula's schemes, while Darcula-related scam complaints from Google Messages users exceeded 5,000 between September and November, according to Google, which named Yucheng Chang as the group's leader while accusing two dozen other individuals.

"We are taking legal action to shut down the infrastructure of a massive scam operation that was responsible for 80% of all phishing texts. Our message to scammers is clear: We will use our technical and legal resources to protect our users and hold you accountable," said Google Vice President of Litigation Cassandra Knight.