Collaborate Disseminate
The alleged, now indicted ringleader paid more than $1m in bribes to insiders who planted malware and hardware for remote unlocking. Continue reading More than 2m AT&T phones illegally unlocked by bribed insiders
A 34-year-old Pakistani man has been charged with paying AT&T employees more than $1 million to plant malicious software that make it possible to use iPhones outside AT&T’s controls, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday. Muhammad Fahd conspired with another man, Ghulam Jiwani, according to a newly unsealed indictment. The scheme, which lasted in some form from April 2012 to September 2017, involved the two men approaching AT&T employees, often through Facebook or by phone, then offering cash in exchange for the employees’ agreement to unlock specific phones, based on their identifying IMEI codes. The scheme unlocked more than 2 million cell phones over the five-year span, prosecutors say. Unlocked devices are compatible with any cell carrier, depriving “the remaining value of the customer’s service contract and, if applicable, remaining payments under the customer’s installment plan,” according to the indictment. Fahd, who also went by the name Frank Zhang, operated under […]
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