The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Google announced the takedown of Outsider Enterprise, a phishing-as-a-service platform. The platform, which operated out of China and coordinated its activities through Telegram, had been active since 2023, according to the FBI.

The operation distributed phishing kits that enabled users to impersonate known brands through SMS campaigns. The platform targeted individuals in the U.S. and at least 54 other countries. Google identified 9,000 fake websites and more than 1 million URLs associated with the operation. Over a two-week period in May, more than 2.5 million SMS messages containing links to platform-generated websites were sent to Android users, 55,000 of which were flagged as fraudulent by users.

The platform was used to steal approximately 3.8 million credit cards, resulting in an estimated $1.9 billion in financial losses. The takedown operation is part of the FBI's Operation Riptide, which focuses on cybercriminal networks. Authorities seized domains linked to the group's administrative servers and also seized a Shopify e-commerce storefront and account used for testing phishing kits. Investigators also seized approximately $100,000 in cryptocurrency assets from the platform and used the group's Telegram bot to gather intelligence on its customers.

The FBI and its partners took down thousands of phishing domains hosted by U.S. providers, redirecting them to a federal splash page. Google filed a civil lawsuit to dismantle the operation's infrastructure and is coordinating with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block phishing text messages. Black Lotus Labs assisted the FBI and Google in dismantling the cybercrime operation.

"Our civil lawsuit targets an organized cybercrime operation known as the 'Outsider Enterprise'. Based in China and coordinating through Telegram, this network distributes phishing kits that allow criminals to blast out fake text campaigns that look like they are from Google and other trusted brands," Google stated. "By combining powerful security defenses with aggressive legal action, we are fighting against scammers and working to build a safer internet for everyone," Google stated.