Inside the Smishing Triad

Inside the Smishing Triad

From Hacked by Hacked

December 15, 2025 · 1h 11m

About this episode

The episode explores the Lighthouse phishing-as-a-service platform and the smishing triad ecosystem with security researcher Ford Merrill.

A deep dive into Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to millions of scam texts worldwide, and the sprawling “smishing triad” ecosystem built around it. With security researcher Ford Merrill, we unpack how modern scam operations work at industrial scale — from fake e-commerce sites and mass SMS campaigns to the wallet-provisioning techniques that let criminals turn stolen credit cards into tap-to-pay phones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Hacked

Guest: Ford Merrill

Topics covered

  • smishing
  • phishing-as-a-service
  • scam texts
  • cybersecurity
  • credit card fraud
  • SMS campaigns

Keywords

  • smishing
  • phishing
  • scam texts
  • cybersecurity
  • credit card fraud
  • Lighthouse
  • Ford Merrill

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lighthouse

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