Overview
- Google filed the civil case on Nov. 12 in the Southern District of New York against John Does 1–25, saying it believes core operators are based in China.
- The complaint cites RICO, the Lanham Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and seeks a temporary restraining order and permanent injunctions to dismantle the infrastructure.
- Research referenced by Google links Lighthouse to roughly 200,000 scam websites created in 20 days, more than 1 million victims across 120+ countries, and an estimated 12.7 million to 115 million compromised U.S. payment cards.
- Evidence includes over 100 fraudulent sign‑in templates using Google branding, public Telegram channels with about 2,500 participants, and delivery via SMS, RCS, and iMessage.
- Alongside the suit, Google is rolling out AI flagging of common scam texts, protections in Google Messages, expanded account recovery options, and endorsements of the GUARD, Foreign Robocall Elimination, and SCAM bills.