Indian Police to Question Google Over 500,000 Fake Gmail Accounts

Indian police will formally question Google over alleged security failures after dismantling a criminal network that created more than 500,000 fake Gmail accounts to send hoax bomb threats to government offices. The investigation, led by Gujarat state police, uncovered 513,847 fraudulent Gmail IDs and passwords that authorities say have been used since 2022 to send interstate threats. Vivek Bheda, a senior cybercrime official with the Gujarat police, said the scale of the operation was unprecedented. "We will write to Google, ask them to make some policy changes so safeguards cannot be bypassed," Bheda stated, adding that police plan to formally designate Google as a subject of the investigation soon. The probe began after the Gujarat state government received a bomb threat email on September 10, days before the recent BRICS summit in New Delhi. The email also threatened countries cooperating with India during the summit, according to a police statement. The threats proved to be false. Police arrested two individuals in connection with the network.