Chinese cybercriminals to beat the world. Over the past few years, these fraudsters have sent millions of Scam text messages – often posing as USPS or toll-road collection firms – and allegedly made more than a billion dollars from their schemes. Groups of SMS Scammers are still far – and annoying – nonang to millions of people.
Now, in one of the most high-profile actions against scammers to date, Google is testifying against members of one of the “infinite” Chinese-run groups that it says has tried to recruit people in more than 120 countries around the world. In a lawsuit filed today in the US state of New York, Google said that 25 random people worked as part of the “Lighkuthouse” network aimed at the operation of text messages in “surprising operations”.
As well as “steal” information and money from people around the world, sometimes known as part of the “Slishing Triad, and” Preys on the operation of its logos and technologies, the company claims. “With the rise of scams, it is caused by the actions of organized crime networks, and most of them are not true,” Halimah Delaine Prado, General Counsel at Google, was struck in an interview with wire and wire. “The Ligniouse network has a huge reach.”
The lighiniouse group is one of the Chinese-speaking shiko groups that have emerged in recent years. In general, groups blast messages paid by thousands of people using SMS, Google’s RCS service, or Apple’s Imessage. Each structured document impersonates an organization – such as delivery firms, banks, or law enforcement services – and includes links to a fraudulent website. If a person enters their information on these fake websites, scammers can collect their personal information and bank details in real time. Some groups are also known to create fake online shopping websites that can steal data.
Key to Lightouse’s performance is its innovative messaging software. This software was developed by cybercriminals and sold as a subscription service to scammers who are technically incompetent to send text messages. Scammers can buy “weekly, monthly, periodically, annually, or permanently” to use the software, Google claims.
“The Lightouse platform is a depishing-a-service tool used by cybercriminals to steal bank account information and RCs, and they support iMessage codes and rich RCs) for SCS only,” said Hamit Alptekin, chief executive officer of security intelligence that builds on it, which tracks the Chinese-speaking Ecosystem. “It uses advanced anti-intrusion techniques such as IP- and user-based filtering, restricted URLs, and domain rotation in HAMPER detection,” Alptekin said.
