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AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications firm, lost over $200 million after a Pakistani scammer and his partners coordinated a seven-year scheme that led to the fraudulent unlocking of nearly 2 million phones.
Muhammad Fahd, 35, of Karachi, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after he bribed several AT&T employees to do his bidding, including unlocking phones, giving him access to their credentials, and installing malware that gave him remote access to the mobile carrier’s servers, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
How it all started?
It all began in the summer of 2012 when Fahd recruited an AT&T employee via Facebook using the false name “Frank Zhang”. He bribed the employee and his co-workers with “significant sums of money” to remove the carrier’s protection that locked cellular phones to its network.
In April 2013, the scammer was forced to recruit a malware developer to manufacture malicious tools after AT&T launched a new unlocking system that restricted corrupt employees from continuing unlocking phones on his behalf.
Pakistani Scammer Sentenced to 12 Years in $200 Million Phone-Fraud Scheme