Google has filed a complaint against a group of Chinese hackers manage a platform called “Lighthouse”, which sells phishing services for a monthly fee. The group offers its customers its services to carry out large-scale phishing and smishing campaigns (phishing via SMS). According to Google, criminals often send emails or text messages that link to fake websites that pretend to be legitimate websites from established brands like USPS and EZ Pass to trick people into entering their login credentials and other sensitive information. The company found at least 107 Google-branded login screen templates designed to steal user credentials.
In its announcement, Google said that a million people in 121 countries have fallen victim to online fraud through Lighthouse, and that criminals have already stolen $1 billion. In the US alone, they managed to obtain between 12.7 and 115 million credit card numbers. The most popular scheme is to impersonate the USPS and tell victims they have to pay to return a package stuck to the post office.
that this Financial times In its lawsuit, Google cited as an example data from cybersecurity firm Silent Push, which claimed that Chinese criminal group Smishing Triad used Lighthouse to create 200,000 fake websites earlier this year. These websites reportedly received 50,000 hits per day and compromised millions of US credit cards within 20 days. The company is making claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Lanham Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. If the company wins, Google can work with website operators and servers to shut down the company’s domain and servers.
In addition to taking legal action, Google is also supporting bipartisan bills in Congress that target foreign cybercriminals. A bill would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to use federal grants to investigate financial fraud against retirees. Another goal is to establish a task force to block foreign robocalls in the United States. The latter focuses on anti-fraud centers or centers that serve as bases for fraud operations and aims to support survivors who are victims of human trafficking and forced to work for these centers.
