| Google Gets Injunction in
SDNY RICO Suit Against Phishing
Scammers Using Lighthouse
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
Nov 25 – Scammers using the
phishing software kit
"Lighthouse" have been sued,
as Does 1-12, by Google. The
case is before U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Lewis A. Kaplan, who will hold
a November 25 hearing. Inner
City Press intends to
live-tweet it, on Bluesky if
still blocked from its X
account (after phishing on
which X has yet to act).
Google's complaint begins,
"The scam begins with a text
message. It may alert you to a
problem with the delivery of a
package and invite you to
click a link to correct your
address."
[In the
case with X, InnerCityPress
received an email saying it
was accused by X of a
copyright violation, to appeal
which it had to enter its
password. X was immediately
informed on November 17 but
more than five days later, X
has yet to return the
account.]
The
complaint continues that
"disrupting the Lighthouse
Enterprise will require
persistence because the
Enterprise can execute new
phishing schemes with little
effort, thanks to the
Lighthouse software and
coordination on the Lighthouse
discussion forums."
The case is
filed under RICO, the CFAA and
the Lanham Act. Google is
represented by King &
Spalding LLP. The Does not
surprisingly have not yet made
an appearance.
On November 25
Inner City Press live tweeted
the PI hearing, held by Judge
Marrero as Part I:
Judge Marrero:
Has Google communicated with
any of the defendants?
Google's lawyer: Apart from
the service, no. We got 340
email addresses from
registrars we served the TRO
on. They took down some
servers. We also put it on our
public website we put up on
Nov 15
Google: The Court
already gave us a TRO - we
will suffer immediate and
irreparable harm. The scope of
the Lighthouse conspiracy is
vast - 121 countries, fake
websites - victims have their
money stolen, using Google's
logos - YouTube too. We have
tried to disrupt
Google's lawyer:
They work together, doing
different parts of the
phishing schemes. Is there no
countervailing interest in
continuing the phishing
scheme. We have taken down 2
servers and 2100 domains out
of some 2500... The PI order
is needed
Judge: I grant
the preliminary injunction.
Adjourned.
The case
is Google LLC v. Does 1-25,
1:25-cv-9421 (Kaplan)
***
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