Zoe Schiffer: So switching gears, our next story deals with another unavoidable fact of modern life, which is scam text messages. Brian, how many scam messages or calls would you say you receive in a given week these days?
Brian Barrett: I mean, how many have I received during this recording? This is constant, and that’s not even counting the political ones, which are legitimate but annoying. No, they’re stable, Zoey. This is the most frequent communication I have had in my life from scammers.
Zoe Schiffer: Yes, same. So, we really have no way of knowing for sure, but you, along with millions of other Americans, may be the target of a Chinese network of fraudsters called Lighthouse. Over the past few years, the group has sent millions of scam text messages, often impersonating the USPS or toll road collectors, and has reportedly made more than a billion dollars from their schemes. Our colleague, Matt Burgess, learned that Google this week sued 25 unnamed individuals in the United States who allegedly worked as part of this scam network. The group’s name, Lighthouse, comes from the software they sell to help fraudsters defraud people. It has been developed and sold by cyber criminals, it really bothered me as a subscription service for less technically competent scammers. You can purchase a weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual or permanent subscription. They are running a professional operation there.
Brian Barrett: Just make sure to turn off auto-renew if you don’t want that—you don’t want to be stuck with a bill after the free trial.
Zoe Schiffer: Yes, you have to really make sure there is strong ROI before you commit.
Brian Barrett: Yes. This is notable, and we have also seen it in ransomware like Ransomware Service. Now you’ve got scam as a service. The level of professionalism in these operations, I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s always rough. Google’s filing alleges that Lighthouse provides more than 600 phishing templates that scammers can use to steal people’s personal information. You can choose from over 400 entities or organizations to impersonate. It’s really specific, it’s really sophisticated, and I think what’s interesting to me here too, Zoey, is these lawsuits always seem to be futile.