Massive US payment card compromise facilitated by Chinese smishing operations

The U.S. had 12.7 million to 115 million payment cards compromised in Chinese smishing campaigns involving digital wallet tokenization exploits from July 2023 to October 2024, leading to financial losses in the billions of dollars, Infosecurity Magazine reports.

While attack campaigns initially involved only uncomplicated package delivery schemes, Chinese threat actors have eventually bolstered smishing activities to involve phishing-as-a-service platforms, fraudulent e-commerce operations, and brokerage account hijacking, according to an analysis from SecAlliance. Numerous phishing kits with advanced anti-analysis capabilities have been offered by the Telegram channel "dy-tongbu" operated by Chinese developer "Lao Wang" since early 2023, enabling the development of more sophisticated digital wallet-targeted smishing platforms. Bogus e-commerce websites have also prompted the creation of more targeted Chinese smishing schemes since August. Meanwhile, digital wallet tokenization systems have been leveraged by Chinese attackers to enable more clandestine compromise. "The monetization opportunities created by this approach are extensive," said SecAlliance researchers.