Google Sues Alleged Chinese Scam Group Behind Massive US Text Message Phishing Ring (nbcnews.com) 20
Google is suing a Chinese-speaking cybercriminal group it says is responsible for a massive wave of scam text messages sent to Americans this year, according to a legal complaint filed Tuesday. From a report: The group, known as Darcula, sells software that allows users to send phishing text messages en masse, impersonating organizations like the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service in scams. The lawsuit is designed to give Google legal standing so U.S. courts will allow it to seize websites the group uses, hampering their operations, a spokesperson said.
Darcula is possibly the most prominent name in an emerging, loosely affiliated cybercrime world that creates and sells hacking programs for aspiring scammers to use. Darcula's signature program, called Magic Cat, provides an easy-to-use, intuitive way for cybercriminals without advanced hacking skills to quickly spam millions of phone numbers with links to fake websites impersonating businesses like YouTube's premium service, then steal the credit card numbers victims put in.
Darcula is possibly the most prominent name in an emerging, loosely affiliated cybercrime world that creates and sells hacking programs for aspiring scammers to use. Darcula's signature program, called Magic Cat, provides an easy-to-use, intuitive way for cybercriminals without advanced hacking skills to quickly spam millions of phone numbers with links to fake websites impersonating businesses like YouTube's premium service, then steal the credit card numbers victims put in.
Since when ... (Score:3)
Since (Score:3)
It is their concern since it is being used for Google account takeover. Account takeover didn't used to bother them. But, it has become so rampant that it is starting to inconvenience Google to the point that they are losing profits to it.
Re:Since (Score:4, Interesting)
SMS and other mobile technologies are notoriously insecure (read up on SS7). Anyone who requests my phone number for 2FA deserves to have their accounts pwned.
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Perhaps you need to read up on the scam. It has nothing whatsoever to do with your opinion of SMS security and nothing to do with 2FA.
SMS is simply used to deliver a text message containing a web link to the phishing site.
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So then, nothing to do with Google account takeover. Your last statement was in error then?
The spammers LOVE money (Score:3)
Seems obvious enough that the phishing website will ask for the google login information if that is the target of the phishing scam. Possibly disguised as one of those authorization requests to link and login from the google account?
Pretty sure I've seen a bunch of these, but not a significant fraction of the phishing spam I receive each day. I'd estimate that about three to five false negatives slip through on a daily basis, though the false positives have been mostly eliminated. I'm "tracking" about five
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Well, your examples are phishing via email. There's a lot of that going on. Just look for "To: undisclosed-recipients:" in your mail headers.
SMS as well, I imagine. And "impersonating organizations like the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service" is pretty easy, given the weak security of our wireless infrastructure. And there are legitimate "mass SMS broadcasters", so that by itself isn't new either.
what bothers me is that Google is seeking grounds to go after these people extra-judicially. I just don't trust th
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Ignoring the problem has yet to make it go away.
And I strongly disagree that today's google sincerely cares about anything except getting more money.
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except getting more money.
At this point in time, I believe Google is pursuing power instead of just money. And they are willing to make some questionable (from a profit point of view) investments to accumulate it. Establishing legal standing to play Internet cop on behalf of their users is just one ploy. We already have a DoJ to take care of that sort of thing. They need to get off their ass before private business weasels their way into becomming the law of the land.
At some point, I expect Google to parlay ther power into profit.
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I think you have lost track of the current priorities of the DoJ. But perhaps time for the old joke? Unfortunately I can't remember the exact form of the quote that underlies the joke. A Russian guy? Something about "Behind every great fortune there is a crime"?
I actually think there are two ways to become excessively rich, and crime is only one of them. The second way is to be lucky, though the luck can take various forms. Most common form is inheriting the profits from a parent's crimes.
So the joke is tha
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Says right in the summary the whole idea for Google is for the court to say it can be their concern. If the judge agrees with you he'll toss it for lack of standing.
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If the judge agrees with you he'll toss it for lack of standing.
I hope so. The Chinese group doesn't appear to be using any of Google's resources for their scams*. They aren't the Internet Police or the telecom police. If they want to play cop, I'll put a cap pistol and tin sheriffs badge under their Christmas tree.
*It seems to me that Google needs to keep their GMail users from emailing out scams first. John 8:7.
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Yeah I'm not a lawyer but I suppose it'll rest on if Google can show they themselves have suffered damages directly from this, usually when I hear about these types of things it's in conjunction with some form of law enforcement.
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How is hacking/phishing/malware anyone's concern except the victim?
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We have, as a society, made crime all of our concerns
We have also elected officials to be empowered with the responsibility for enforcing laws. Nobody elected Google. And 'we' have put the collective rope and tree approach to law enforcement behind us.
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We have, as a society, made crime all of our concerns
We have also elected officials to be empowered with the responsibility for enforcing laws. Nobody elected Google. And 'we' have put the collective rope and tree approach to law enforcement behind us.
We also have separate criminal and civil laws, the former primarily enforced by those you mention and the latter primarily used by others, including in this case Google.
As Americans say (Score:2)
"Good luck collecting it"