Details of Elon Musk's company suing 8 Vietnamese people

The social network accused the individuals of violating its policies and abusing its revenue-sharing program to make money illegally. The plaintiffs had many photo evidences, collected online.

Images of 8 individuals accused by X of fraud and illegal money making.

The social network cited the identities of eight Vietnamese people and an anonymous individual in the lawsuit, demanding compensation for the damage the group caused to the platform. Without mentioning the exact amount, Elon Musk's platform only requested the return of the misappropriated assets along with interest and court costs.

Social networks also claim that the above group violated the copyright of brand X when using it for course advertisements and calling for making money online.

Accused of stealing money

In explaining the root cause of the dispute, X said that it is a global digital platform that allows users to express themselves publicly. The company currently has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, including 70 million in its home state of Texas (USA), so the lawsuit was filed.

They have a revenue sharing program for creators, based on engagement and reposting on X. The project is designed to incentivize sharing quality information in return for financial rewards.

Images of the defendants' workplaces were obtained by X. Photo: US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The US social network asked the court to consider the crime of “illegal enrichment with” 8 Vietnamese individuals, with violations such as “appropriation, extortion, fraud, trademark theft, non-compliance with revenue sharing terms. The method of violation is to use “computer bots” and other tools to manipulate interaction data to steal money.

“By means of a criminal scheme, this group fraudulently obtained money from the revenue sharing program, taking it from those who deserved it. In addition to the financial problems, the actions damaged X’s reputation and customer relationships by introducing low-quality content,” X’s lawyer wrote.

The group of 9 people (8 X individuals collecting information and one anonymous person) are accused of planning, operating systematically and starting to abuse the policy since 2023. The amount of damage was not announced by the social network, but it must be at least over 75,000 USD to be eligible for litigation where they filed the complaint.

Trick to get money from X

In additional documentation, X said it had investigated the group controlling a network called “XGPT” or “MakeMoneywithX.” The network was designed to manipulate the number of interactions, performing automated actions according to set scenarios to collect money from the revenue sharing program.

“Based on the data collected and our understanding, they used stolen identities of US citizens to carry out their fraudulent scheme,” the social network wrote.

In addition to social network X, Elon Musk's platform also investigated this group manipulating other tools including Google, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. The group of 8 people mentioned above sold automation software to other individuals, to expand the scale of fraud.

XGPT service advertisement. Photo: US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The evidence provided by the American company is screenshots of advertisements for the “XGPT” tool to automate interactions on social networks, including X. Each member of this group also posted videos on YouTube, demonstrating the software’s functions for advertising. The tool’s money was required to be transferred to an account under Phan Ngoc Tuan’s name at Techcombank .

To manipulate the algorithm, these people use X Premium accounts to post content. Then, they use other accounts in the network to interact, like, and repost to trick people into thinking that this is quality content, worthy of being paid for.

The money X paid was transferred to the Stripe account and then to 125 fake identity bank cards.

The plaintiffs also have a lot of evidence in the form of screenshots where the defendants used social media tools such as TikTok, YouTube, Meet or Telegram to promote and sell XGPT software. Many of these links are still accessible and have full information. Many of the money-making groups they manage have thousands of members.

A series of real group photos were collected by X. According to the platform, they were taken from Telegram groups.

Source: https://znews.vn/chi-tiet-vu-cong-ty-cua-elon-musk-kien-8-nguoi-viet-post1556665.html