Indian Police to Question Google Over 500,000 Fake Gmail IDs Used in Bomb Hoax

Indian police are set to question Google after uncovering a criminal network that created and managed more than 500,000 fake Gmail accounts allegedly used to send bomb threats to government offices. Gujarat police arrested two people and discovered 513,847 Gmail IDs and passwords reportedly being used since 2022. Police described the scale of the fake accounts as unprecedented.

The investigation began after a bomb threat email was sent to the Gujarat government on September 10, days before the BRICS summit in New Delhi. Police said the threat also targeted countries cooperating with India during the summit, but it was later found to be false. One of the arrested suspects was allegedly in contact with a buyer in Bangladesh who purchased batches of accounts and partly paid for them using cryptocurrency.

Gujarat cybercrime officials said they plan to write to Google seeking stronger safeguards to prevent its account-creation systems from being bypassed. Police are particularly concerned that the fraudulent accounts had two-factor authentication enabled, raising questions about how the network created and managed such a large number of accounts. Google had not immediately responded to Reuters’ request for comment.

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