AT&T Workers Bribed To Unlock Cell Phones: DoJ

(RTTNews) - A Pakistani citizen was charged for paying insiders at telecommunications giant AT&T to plant malware and misuse computer networks to unlock cellphones, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

34-year-old Muhammad Fahd was extradited to the U.S. last week after a year and a half of his arrest in Hong Kong in February 2018. He was charged in a 14-count federal indictment. The case is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Fahd is alleged to have recruited and paid AT&T workers to use their computer credentials and access to disable AT&T's proprietary locking software that prevented ineligible phones from being removed from AT&T's network. This had cost the company millions of dollars, the bulletin said.

Fahd is said to have paid the insiders tens of thousands of dollars, in person as well as using payment systems such as Western Union.

Fahd is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to violate the Travel Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Fahd is alleged to have recruited various AT&T employees to the conspiracy between 2012 and 2017, with some early recruits being paid to identify other employees to join the group. Three of these coconspirators have pleaded guilty, admitting they were paid thousands of dollars for facilitating Fahd's fraudulent scheme.

According to the indictment, Fahd allegedly would send the employees batches of international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers to the employees to get the phones unlocked. Later, he could use the AT&T computers itself to unlock cell phones from a remote location after the employees developed and installed additional tools for Fahd.