So, one thing about this article, it goes on to talk about SIM farms that are used as part of the fraud. Remember those illegal SIM farms the feds busted in New York City a few weeks ago? I...
Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations.
The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics.
Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for the toll and postage messages, have used them to make more than $1 billion over the last three years, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Behind the con, investigators say, is a black market connecting foreign criminal networks to server farms that blast scam texts to victims. The scammers use phishing websites to collect credit-card information. They then find gig workers in the U.S. who will max out the stolen cards for a small fee.
Making the fraud possible: an ingenious trick allowing criminals to install stolen card numbers in Google and Apple Wallets in Asia, then share the cards with the people in the U.S. making purchases half a world away.
So, one thing about this article, it goes on to talk about SIM farms that are used as part of the fraud. Remember those illegal SIM farms the feds busted in New York City a few weeks ago? I thought it was a farfetched claim they made that it had something to do with terrorism, doesn't it seem more likely those were examples of these SIM farms used for fraud? I mean, I imagine it could be used for both purposes, but...
So, one thing about this article, it goes on to talk about SIM farms that are used as part of the fraud. Remember those illegal SIM farms the feds busted in New York City a few weeks ago? I thought it was a farfetched claim they made that it had something to do with terrorism, doesn't it seem more likely those were examples of these SIM farms used for fraud? I mean, I imagine it could be used for both purposes, but...