Google strikes back at scammers enabling those fake ‘stuck package’ texts

[phillynews215]

TL;DR

• Google has filed a civil suit against individuals involved in the Lighthouse phishing operation.
• Lighthouse facilitates text scams that Google says have impacted more than a million individuals worldwide.
• The suit may not lead to legal consequences for those individuals, who are believed to be living in China, but could still weaken Lighthouse.

Google is suing dozens of people it asserts are involved in a large-scale phishing operation. Yesterday, Google filed a civil suit in New York aimed at dismantling an organization called Lighthouse, a “phishing-as-a-service” operation that Google says has been used to scam more than a million people all over the world.

In a blog post, Google details the Lighthouse operation: The kit generates text message-based phishing (or “smishing”) attacks that leverage existing brands in order to extract information from victims. If you’ve ever received a sketchy text that purports to be from a package delivery service, directing you to click a link to verify personal or payment info, it may have come out of Lighthouse. As Wired explains, Google’s legal action may not directly impact the individuals named in its suit, who are believed to be based in China. But the suit could give Google footing to pressure platforms that enable Lighthouse’s operation to take action.




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