Google Allowed Fraudulent Firm to Scam Users Via False Advertising: Suit

Google is allowing a "fake company" that's likely not U.S.-based to use its platform "to scam people,” alleged a fraud complaint (docket 1:23-cv-10352), removed Monday to U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.

Samantina Zenon, a New York-based actress, mental health advocate and public speaker, contracted with Wikipedia Professional Inc., which she found via a Google search, to help her create a Wikipedia page in April 2020. She discovered later that Wiki Professional was owned by Reckon Media, a company that Google shows was once based in Dallas and is now permanently closed.

Zenon filled out a form on the Wiki Professional website and received an email from Peter Johnson telling her he had many connections for placing articles with “top-tier media outlets like Buzzfeed that has over 50 million users.” Johnson said he would have his writers submit articles for Zenon to media outlets “so that her application to Wiki would be approved.”

Johnson’s fee was $2,250 for 15 articles, with $1,000 upfront and the remaining $1,250 due May 13,said the complaint. He required $550 before he would start working on the articles, the complaint said. Zenon made three payments to Johnson via PayPal for $2,800, while he led her to believe he was working on the articles. In December, Johnson said his work was done and that her Wikipedia page was approved. When Zenon checked Wikipedia, she saw her application had been deleted and that many Wiki pages that had been deleted were by the same user, “AfDed,” it said. The same user had been posting since 2010 and all pages were deleted, it said.

Zenon reached out to Johnson , who proposed that she pay him more money to resubmit her application, the complaint said. After Zenon filed a complaint with PayPal over the payments to Wiki Professional, Johnson contacted her about the dispute she opened for $2,800 “for the publications that his team did for her profile,” the complaint said. Johnson told her that if she would close her case with PayPal, "we can refund you as the money is already taken out from our account,” said the complaint. PayPal told Zenon that no money was taken out of Wiki Professional's account and Johnson “was lying,” the complaint said.

When Zenon “realized she had been scammed, she reached out to Google right away,” and was encouraged to contact law enforcement, said the complaint. Zenon said her concern was larger than the stolen money: "Google is allowing a fake company who is probably not based in America to use their platform to scam people.” No one from Google reached out to investigate further, said the complaint.

Zenon has checked Google periodically over the past three years to see if Google was still allowing Wiki Professional “to use their platform to continue to scam people,” said the complaint. She found “hundreds of reviews online” from victims like herself, it said. “Google continues to give them a platform to steal from consumers.”

The incident “ruined” Zenon’s reputation, the complaint said. When she asked a “real professional” try to create a Wikipedia page for her, he told her he wasn’t able to because “she has been flagged on the Wikipedia platform as a potential scam, and she will need to wait a few years before making another attempt,” it said. Zenon has no Wikipedia page, her reputation “has been ruined” and she lost nearly $3,000, the complaint alleged. Because of Google’s participation in allowing Reckon to advertise, Reckon can use its scammers “to obtain money and not pay for the services,” it said.

Zenon asserts claims of fraud against Reckon or Wikipedia Professionals, aiding and abetting against Google and conspiracy between Google and Reckon, said the complaint. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages; attorney’s fees, legal costs and interest; plus an order prohibiting Google from allowing Reckon to advertise on its platform, the complaint said. Google had no comment Tuesday.