Indian police are preparing to question Google after a Gujarat investigation uncovered a network linked to more than 500,000 fake Gmail accounts, Reuters reported.
Police said the accounts and login credentials had been used since 2022 and were connected to hoax bomb-threat emails targeting government offices and other institutions. Investigators are also examining whether some accounts were sold across borders and whether cryptocurrency was used for payments.
The case raises two separate policy questions. The first is criminal investigation and attribution across jurisdictions. The second is platform responsibility - how identity and account-creation safeguards should work when large-scale abuse occurs despite standard security tools such as two-factor authentication.
