Sandy
08-06-2019, 11:51 PM
Between 2013 and 2017, Muhamad Fahd a 34-year-old from Pakistan allegedly bribed AT&T employees at a call center in Bothell, Washington, to "use their network credentials and exceed their authorized access to AT&T's computers to submit large numbers of fraudulent and unauthorized unlock requests on behalf of the conspiracy and to install malware and unauthorized hardware on AT&T's systems," according to the indictment.
DOJ says the scheme cost the company millions and resulted in millions of phones being removed from AT&T service. A phone is usually locked to a carrier, like AT&T, according to Apple, and unlocking a phone means disconnecting or "unlocking" from one carrier, and then the phone can be used by anyone.
The AT&T insiders, allegedly planted malware on computers that allowed Fahd to log into AT&T's "internal protected computers under false pretenses and to process fraudulent and authorized unlock request," from a remote location, the indictment says.
DOJ alleges that in addition to a malware, the AT&T employees were bribed to also use their physical access points to install hardwired devices to give Fahid remote access to internal "protected computers," so he could study the company's processes.
It was a lot more than just unlocking phones. If you buy an expensive new phone on a 2-year installment plan, the phone becomes useless when your service is terminated for non-payment. What the asslifter was doing, absolutely with accomplices outside AT&T, was to buy lots of phones that they'd never fully pay for (maybe just the first month to get things started), get them unlocked, and bring them overseas to sell.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/t-employees-bribed-more-1m-unlock-phones-install-151100932.html
DOJ says the scheme cost the company millions and resulted in millions of phones being removed from AT&T service. A phone is usually locked to a carrier, like AT&T, according to Apple, and unlocking a phone means disconnecting or "unlocking" from one carrier, and then the phone can be used by anyone.
The AT&T insiders, allegedly planted malware on computers that allowed Fahd to log into AT&T's "internal protected computers under false pretenses and to process fraudulent and authorized unlock request," from a remote location, the indictment says.
DOJ alleges that in addition to a malware, the AT&T employees were bribed to also use their physical access points to install hardwired devices to give Fahid remote access to internal "protected computers," so he could study the company's processes.
It was a lot more than just unlocking phones. If you buy an expensive new phone on a 2-year installment plan, the phone becomes useless when your service is terminated for non-payment. What the asslifter was doing, absolutely with accomplices outside AT&T, was to buy lots of phones that they'd never fully pay for (maybe just the first month to get things started), get them unlocked, and bring them overseas to sell.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/t-employees-bribed-more-1m-unlock-phones-install-151100932.html