The world is a scary place. There are many people out there who want to harm Americans.
And these foreign gangs were caught scamming U.S. citizens through a vile scheme.
America is under siege from a ruthless wave of scam texts orchestrated by criminal syndicates straight out of China, raking in over $1 billion in just three years by preying on hardworking folks, as revealed by the Department of Homeland Security. These deceitful messages hit your phone with fake alerts about toll violations or postal fees, all designed to snatch your credit card details and drain your wallet.
The Wall Street Journal exposes how this flood of phony texts has exploded into a slick, billion-dollar racket run by gangs in China. Posing as official notices for unpaid tolls, USPS charges, or traffic tickets, these scams lure innocent victims into handing over their financial info without a second thought.
Breitbart News has been on top of this mess, highlighting how DMVs nationwide are sounding the alarm on these sneaky phishing ploys:
“As digital scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the latest round of phishing attempts is targeting unsuspecting drivers across the United States. DMVs in at least three states — New York, Florida, and California — have reported a surge in fake text messages that employ fear tactics to deceive recipients into divulging sensitive data.”
“These fraudulent text messages, known as ‘smishing’ or SMS phishing, falsely claim that the recipient has unpaid fees for traffic violations and threaten severe consequences, such as additional fines and the suspension of driving privileges, if the individual fails to comply with the demands. However, these texts do not originate from any official government agency and are part of a growing trend of scammers masquerading as legitimate entities to exploit unsuspecting victims.”
Once these crooks get their hands on your card numbers, they go on a shopping spree for high-end gadgets like iPhones, along with gift cards, and clothes. The key to their scheme? A clever hack that lets them load stolen cards into digital wallets on Apple and Google platforms from Asia, then beam them over to accomplices right here in the States to do the dirty work.
At the heart of this operation are massive SIM farms – hidden setups crammed with networking gear and thousands of those little white SIM cards you pop into phones. One operator can blast out texts at a scale that would normally need a thousand separate numbers, turning spam into a weapon of mass deception.
These farms are run from abroad by the Chinese gangs, but they outsource the grunt work to American gig workers hired through the Chinese app WeChat. Complete with how-to guides and real-time help, these setups have popped up in at least 38 locations across cities like Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami, housing around 200 SIM boxes in total.
Click that shady link in a toll scam text, and you’re funneled to a bogus website demanding your name, card, or bank details to “settle” the fake bill. The scammers build these traps using tools peddled on Telegram channels, spying on every keystroke to mirror your info into their own wallets.
From there, the gangs recruit U.S.-based “mules” via Telegram – everyday people willing to hit stores for them. On a typical day, 400 to 500 of these low-paid helpers earn about 12 cents per $100 gift card they snag, using remote tap-to-pay tech that links phones in China to ones here for seamless, stolen transactions.
These mules snap up iPhones, apparel, and beauty products outright sometimes, but they lean on gift cards to mask the trail. Those cards fuel more buys, with the loot shipped off to China, fenced for profit, and every penny funneled back to the organized crime bosses pulling the strings.
This text tsunami is hitting harder than ever, with Proofpoint tracking a record 330,000 toll-scam messages in one day last month alone. Monthly averages have skyrocketed to three and a half times the levels from January 2024, overwhelming Americans who just want to go about their day without foreign predators lurking in their inboxes.
It’s not just about money – these networks pose a real threat to national security. Breitbart News detailed in September how the Secret Service raided a gigantic SIM farm near New York City, packed with 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers, partly used for vicious swatting hoaxes against conservative leaders.
“The U.S. Secret Service has uncovered a massive network of more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers located within a 35-mile radius of New York City. The operation, believed to be run by foreign ‘nation-state threat actors’ and criminals, was uncovered during an investigation into a surge of swatting calls targeting high-ranking government officials, including members of Congress and the Trump administration,” Breitbart News reported.
“Targets of the swatting calls reportedly include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), and Nikki Haley. The Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, in collaboration with various law enforcement agencies, traced the swatting signals to several locations in the New York tri-state area.”
“Upon further investigation, they found a sophisticated network of SIM servers capable of generating enormous amounts of phone traffic while rapidly switching out SIM cards to evade detection.”
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
