The AT&T Inc. multinational telecommunications corporation is headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Dallas, Texas. (Photo : Reuters)
Three former AT&T retail employees Lam Nguyen, Marc Sapatin, and Kyra Evans were recently sued for fraudulently unlocking phones.
The three were accused of perpetuating "the Unlock Scheme by creating, distributing, and placing on AT&T's computer systems a 'malware' program designed to fraudulently, and without authorization, transmit unlock requests that unlocked hundreds of thousands of phones from exclusive use on AT&T's network," according to the AT&T's complaint filed in Seattle's U.S. District court.
According to the complaint, Sapatin tried to recruit other AT&T employees to participate in the Unlock Scheme telling at least one other AT&T employee he was trying to recruit that he knew someone who had paid to develop software designed to unlock phones.
The complaint accused Sapatin of telling the AT&T employee that she only had to click on a link from someone involved in the Unlock Scheme to download the software, and the program would run on his computer invisibly.
Nguyen, Lam, and Evans worked at an AT&T call center in Washington in 2013. It was said that they did not fraudulently unlocked phones for free. AT&T alleged that there is a fourth person involved.
Swift Unlocks company owner and operator Prashant Vira was accused of paying Evans at least $20,000 for her "placement and/or execution of the malware programs on AT&T's protected computer systems for the purpose of securing the fraudulent unlock," Ars Technica has learned.
In another statement released to the publication, AT&T noted that no customer information ever leaked out.
Sapatin was also said to have received approximately $10,000 while Lam's arrangement is still unclear.
