More than 100,000 people bought into an international cryptocurrency scam, lured to 'invest' by YouTube videos, affiliate marketing campaigns and romantic scam messages, Google claims in a complaint filed Thursday in a New York district court.

Google filed a lawsuit against two developers who allegedly created 87 fraudulent crypto apps over at least 5 years on the Google Play store.

Google accused the developers of targeting thousands of victim “investors” who weren't investing in crypto at all, instead putting money directly into the developers' pockets.

The victims lost anywhere from $100 to tens of thousands of dollars each, according to the complaint.

^{Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images}

The developers used several tactics to get victims to download their apps, according to the complaint — one was sending text messages to potential victims that were supposed to look like they were sent to the wrong number.

The victim would receive a message like “I miss you all the time, how are your parents Mike?” and if they answer, even with a “wrong number”, the developers or people working on their behalf will try to create a friendship or romantic relationship to get the victim to download one of their crypto apps and deposit money.

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The trouble would start when the victim tried to withdraw their funds. The platform wouldn't let them access their money, and the “friend” who told them about the app would stop responding to messages.

The customer service lines would not work, or when they did, the company representative demanded additional withdrawal fees ranging from 10% to 30%, saying these fees were for commissions or taxes.

According to the complaint, even if the victim paid the additional fees, he would not receive the funds he had originally deposited.

Google cited TionRT, Starlight and SkypeWallet as some examples of fraudulent apps in the complaint. The company is asking the court to award it an unspecified amount in damages and to block the defendants from accessing any Google services.

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App developers or their agents also created YouTube videos designed to legitimize their crypto apps, even paying actors to pose as the “management teams” behind the apps.

They also launched affiliate marketing campaigns, promising users that they would earn commissions by signing up other users for the apps, and issued public press releases.

When Google pulled the apps developers created from its app store in response to customer complaints, the developers falsified their identities and started over, Google alleged.

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“Defendants made numerous misrepresentations to Google in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including, but not limited to, misrepresentations regarding their identity, location, and the type and nature of the app being uploaded,” Google's complaint says.