Wired roundup: DHS privacy breach, AI romance, and Google sues text fraudsters

Zoe Schiffer: So, switching gears, our next story tackles another unavoidable fact of modern life, which is text message scams. Brian, how many scam texts or calls would you say you get in a week these days?

Brian Barrett: I mean, how many people have I received during this recording? It’s non-stop, and that’s not even taking into account the political stuff, which is legitimate but annoying. No, they are fixed, Zoë. This is the most consistent communication I’ve had in my life through scammers.

Zoe Schiffer: Yeah, so, we really have no way of knowing for sure, but you, along with millions of other Americans, may have been the target of a Chinese scam network called Lighthouse. Over the past few years, the group has sent millions of fraudulent text messages, often impersonating the USPS or collecting tolls, and they’ve reportedly made more than $1 billion in revenue from their schemes. Our colleague Matt Burgess has learned that Google filed a lawsuit in the US this week against 25 unidentified individuals who allegedly operated as part of this fraud ring. The group’s name, Lighthouse, comes from the software they sell to help scammers scam people. It was developed and sold by cybercriminals, it really screwed me over as a subscription service for less technically capable scammers. You can purchase a weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual or perpetual subscription. They run a professional operation there.

Brian Barrett: Just be sure to turn off auto-renew if you don’t — you don’t want that bill hitting you after the free trial.

Zoe Schiffer: Yes, you really need to make sure there is a strong ROI before making the commitment.

Brian Barrett: Yes it’s significant, and we’ve seen it in ransomware as well, such as Ransomware Service. Now you have received fraud as a service. The level of professionalism of this operation shouldn’t surprise me, but it always does somehow. Google’s filing claims that Lighthouse offers more than 600 phishing patterns that fraudsters can use to steal people’s personal information. You can choose from over 400 entities or organizations to impersonate. It’s really special, it’s really complicated, and I think what’s interesting to me here, Zoë, is that these fights always seem pointless.