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

The report describes the China-linked PhaaS platform “Lighthouse,” which powers industrialized smishing (SMS phishing) campaigns—often using toll-fee and similar urgent lures—to harvest personal and credit-card data; Google has sued Lighthouse under RICO, the CFAA and other statutes, citing over 1 million victims across 120 countries and numerous phishing templates and domains, while security firms (Netcraft) have detected thousands of associated phishing domains. The article also lists common smishing red flags and practical mitigation steps for consumers, and highlights broader enforcement and policy efforts to disrupt the organized criminal ecosystem that launders proceeds via gift cards.