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Phishing
25 million illegal scheme pulled off compromising T-Mobile employees
Ex-owner of a T-Mobile retail unit compromised many of its employees' cell phones resulting in $25 million….
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Ex-owner of a T-Mobile retail unit compromised many of its employees' cell phones resulting in $25 million….
Continue reading
In a $25 million conspiracy, the former proprietor of a T-Mobile retail outlet in California unlawfully gained access to T-internal T-Mobile systems in order to unlock and unlock cell phones. He was found guilty of the crime.
Between 2014 and 2019, Argishti Khudaverdyan, age 44, reportedly conducted a scam in which he unlocked gadgets from the cellular networks of their manufacturers, allowing consumers to use them with other telecommunications companies.
This strategy affected cell providers who sell these gadgets to customers at a discounted price or for free, balancing the cost by tying them to their networks for a while.
In addition, Khudaverdyan unlocked handsets whose owners had reported stolen or lost, causing the carriers to ban them.
This procedure of unlocking stolen cellphones is particularly harmful since it enables these phones to be sold on the black market, making the theft and resale of devices extremely lucrative.
From August 2014 through June 2019, Khudaverdyan illegally unlocked cell phones on T-network, T-Mobile, as well as Sprint's, AT&T's, and other carriers' networks, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's release.
"Removing the unlock allowed the phones to be sold on the black market and allowed T-Mobile customers to quit utilizing T-services, T-Mobile depriving T-Mobile of cash collected through service contracts and equipment payment plans."
On October 17, 2022, Khudaverdyan's punishment will be determined, with the maximum incarceration terms for each offense being:
20 years for each instance of wire fraud, 20 years for money laundering conspiracy, 10 years for money laundering, 5 years for illegal computer access, 5 years for accessing a computer with the intent to defraud, and 2 years for aggravated identity theft.
Infiltration of T-Mobile employee accounts
Khudaverdyan advertised his unlocking services using websites such as "unlocks247.com," spam email, and numerous brokers in order to attract new customers.
The individual even engaged in fraudulent advertising, portraying these unlocks as "official" T-Mobile services so that the clients, in most cases, would not understand they had participated in an illicit transaction.
In order to complete the unlocks, Khudaverdyan hacked the credentials of over 50 T-Mobile workers, most of whom belonged to high-ranking staff with extensive rights.
This was accomplished by phishing emails that resembled authentic T-Mobile internal correspondence and social engineering, both of which were more available to Khudaverdyan since he had access to authentic T-Mobile samples.
Working with others in overseas call centers, Khudaverdyan obtained T-Mobile employee credentials, which he then used to access T-Mobile systems to target higher-level employees by harvesting those employees' personal identifying information and calling the T-Mobile IT Help Desk to reset the employees' company passwords, giving him unauthorized access to T-Mobile systems that allowed him to unlock and unblock cellphones.
These stolen credentials were used to access T-internal T-Mobile computer systems, and he often reset passwords, preventing account owners from accessing the system.
T-Mobile canceled Khudaverdyan's contract in 2017 after reviewing unauthorized access occurrences and suspecting he was engaged in nefarious activity.
However, he continued the same scam by teaming with another T-Mobile store owner in Los Angeles, Alen Gharehbagloo, who has already pled guilty to three crimes and will be sentenced on December 5, 2022.
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