A man made millions unlocking T-Mobile phones with stolen passwords - The Verge

Argishti Khudaverdyan has been found guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, and illegally accessing computers after he used stolen passwords to unlock "hundreds of thousands" of phones.

A jury has found Argishti Khudaverdyan, a former owner of a T-Mobile store, guilty of using stolen credentials to unlock “hundreds of thousands of cellphones” from August 2014 to June 2019 (via PCMag). According to a press release from the Department of Justice and an indictment filed earlier this year, Khudaverdyan made around $25 million from the scheme, which also involved bypassing carrier blocks put on lost or stolen cell phones.

For years, he reportedly used several tactics to acquire the T-Mobile employee credentials needed to unlock phones, including phishing, social engineering, and even getting the carrier’s IT department to reset higher-ups’ passwords, giving him access. The DOJ says he accessed over 50 employees’ credentials, and used them to unlock phones from “Sprint, AT&T and other carriers.”

According to the indictment, Khudaverdyan was able to access T-Mobile’s unlocking tools over the open internet until 2017. After the carrier moved them onto its internal network, Khudaverdyan would allegedly use stolen credentials to access that network via Wi-Fi at T-Mobile stores.

The DOJ says that Khudaverdyan co-owned a T-Mobile store called Top Tier Solutions Inc for a few months in 2017, though the carrier ended up terminating the store’s contract because of suspicious behavior. (The other co-owner, Alen Gharehbagloo, was also accused of fraud and illegally accessing computer systems and has plead guilty.) Throughout the years, the DOJ says that Khudaverdyan marketed his unlocking services via email, brokers, and various websites, telling customers that they were official T-Mobile unlocks.

Khudaverdyan’s indictment describes a few of the purchases he and Gharehbagloo made with the money they got from unlocking phones; properties in California, a $32,000 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch, and a Land Rover. Gharehbagloo and Khudaverdyan are accused of leasing a Mercedes-Benz S 63 AMG and aFerrari 458, respectively. A Rolex Sky-Dweller was also seized from one of the properties.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/2/23289699/t-mobile-phone-unlocker-guilty-25-million


Post ID: f1629cc0-d16d-4a8b-af82-3e9b721a48a4
Rating: 5
Created: 1 year ago
Your ad can be here
Create Post

Similar classified ads


News's other ads