Leading American Tech giant Google is not a stranger to malware with millions of users affected by the issue on Android. However, in the last few months, Google has been facing a new-age malware challenge that involves Google’s own AI chatbot Bard. Apparently, Google Bard is being misused by scammers to infect malware into users’ systems. Scammers have built fake Bard Apps, downloading which the user’s system will get infected with malware.
While most people know that Google Bard is not an app and can’t be downloaded. Google has claimed many times that Bard is available on the browser and is free to use, but there are some who still fall into such traps. Those who are not aware, download fake Bard apps from Play Store which Google has claimed is malware that is being installed on the devices. This is the reason why Google is warning its users against downloading any Bard applications.
What is Bard?
Google Bard was launched in March 2023 and is Google’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It offers similar functionalities but doesn’t perform as elaborately as ChatGPT. Scammers are exploiting this weakness to trap innocent users into downloading fake Bard apps.
Google Bard can explain any concept, plan trips, give suggestions, and more. Currently, Google Bard is only available in web browsers and one needs a Google Account to use it. There is no legal Bard app available on Play Store and those are all malware which Google is working hard to get removed.
What has Google done to stop this Malware Challenge?
Google is obviously infuriated with these practices of scammers and has warned them multiple times of legal consequences. Google has asked them to stop posting ads or posts for Bard which allows the users to download their fake malicious apps. Multiple groups have been created on Facebook which features push ads suggesting users download the Bard app to get a better experience and latest updates.
While many are aware that there is no Bard app, sadly there is a huge section that still falls for these ads and gets trapped in the scam. They download these apps which are malware in disguise and get their systems infected.
Google’s stance is ambitious as a legal case won’t stand if the actions are being done from outside the jurisdiction of the US. This is a hard task for Google to accomplish as they have to get rid of millions of malicious apps from the Play Store as Android is hugely popular and much more accessible than the iOS store. However, Google will have to put an end to this scam as Bard is a huge part of the company’s plans going forward and if this malware challenge doesn’t end, the credibility of Bard will take a huge hit.
A few days ago, Kaspersky (a leading anti-virus brand) shed some light on this critical malware problem for Google. He claimed that over 600 million downloads of malicious apps have been recorded on the Play Store in 2023 itself. Bard is supposed to be competing toe-to-toe with chatbots like ChatGPT and if this scam isn’t ended, things won’t go down pretty well for Google and Bard.
On November 13, 2023, Google announced on its official blog ‘The Keyword’ that the company is filing a lawsuit and taking legal action against scammers said to be based in Vietnam. The lawsuit complaint filed can be viewed on Thomson Reuters.
The scammers have created pages under names like ‘Google AI’, ‘AIGoogle’, ‘Bard FB’, etc., and have run extensive ads to download app versions for a better experience. To trick users, scammers have used Google trademarks like Google, Google AI, and Bard so that users feel they are offering the latest version of Bard.
Google has clarified that the company has no affiliation with these scammers who even claim that Bard is a paid app while Google Bard itself is free to use and doesn’t need to be downloaded.
Google has submitted 300 takedown requests against these scammers since April 2023 and wants them prevented from registering future malicious domains and disabled with the US domain registrars. The company hopes that providing legal action and cooperating with government officials will help expose scammers faster and save users from this scam. “Lawsuits are an effective tool for establishing a legal precedent, disrupting the tools used by scammers, and raising the consequences for bad actors,” General Counsel of Google, Halimah DeLaine Prado wrote in Google’s blog post.
Just like crypto scams, the lawsuit mentions how interest in an emerging technology can be weaponized against people who may not fully understand how it operates and this gets used against them.
What should users do?
If you saw an ad on Facebook about downloading an app version of Google Bard, think twice and step back as it is nothing but malware. There is absolutely no app version of Google Bard to date so stick to a free web-based version until Google officially announces an app. Use the web-based version and always check the source’s reliability before installing any software. Google Bard is currently available free of cost at bard.google.com, to be used in your web browser.
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