1 million victims, 17,500 fake sites: Google takes on toll-fee scammers

Google’s lawsuit targets a China-based Phishing-as-a-Service platform known as “Lighthouse,” which enables smishing campaigns that lure US targets with texts about small toll fees. The texts lead to websites that impersonate toll authorities or other trusted organisations to steal personal information and credit card numbers for fraud, according to Google.

Google says Lighthouse alone affected more than 1 million victims across 120 countries, and Netcraft has since detected more than 17,500 phishing domains targeting 316 brands from 74 countries. The campaign is part of a broader, industrialised text-scam ecosystem that has allegedly generated over $1 billion for Chinese crime groups in three years, with Project Red Hook noted as launching to coordinate public‑private responses.

Lighthouse is described in the filing as a PhaaS platform operating from China, with the texts designed to drive victims to scam sites that carry branding to boost credibility. The article also notes a push for public policy measures and better user education to dry up the scammers’ income.