A man in Eagle Rock, Las Vegas, has been found guilty of hacking into phone carrier systems to unlock phones, cultivating a multi-million dollar business. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Argishti Khudaverdyan carried out the scheme between August 2014 to June 2019 and involved phones from T-mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and other carriers.
How the scheme worked
The business was lucrative for Khudaverdyan because when he was operating it, many carriers locked customer phones so that they could only use their specific network until a customer’s phone and service contract ended. To switch to another service or carrier, a customer would need to unlock their phone. Carriers can also block phones from working if they are stolen or lost. To get around these locks and blocks, countless people utilized Khudaverdyan’s services. These services, according to the DOJ, allowed for stolen phones to be sold on the black market and deprived phone carriers of revenue.
At first, Khudaverdyan unlocked phones using his own T-Mobile credentials, as he owned a T-mobile store called Top Tier Solutions Inc. between January and June 2017. However, after T-mobile noticed suspicious behavior related to the unauthorized unlocking of cell phones, they terminated his contract. After that, Khudaverdyan continued his illicit activities by stealing credentials from T-Mobile staff. He did this through various means, such as phishing emails that tricked employees to “log in” to a fake T-Mobile webpage and socially engineering T-Mobile IT Help Desk staff. He used these credentials to log in to the T-Mobile systems and unlock and unblock phones. Khudaverdyan is believed to have stolen around 50 employees’ credentials and unlocked hundreds of phones yearly.
Khudaverdyan often advertised his services as legitimate and being carried out by the carriers themselves. He used websites such as unlocks247.com, brokers, and email solicitations to promote his unlocking services. He used his earnings to fund a luxurious lifestyle, including real estate in Burbank and Northridge. The Verge reports that he also owned a $32,000 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch and a Land Rover.
The charges
Khudaverdyan was charged and ultimately found guilty of 14 federal criminal charges, including three counts of wire fraud, five counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft. He will attend a sentencing hearing on October 17, where he could face decades in prison.
His co-defendant, Alen Gharehbagloo, who co-owned Top Tier Solutions Inc. with Khudaverdyan, pleaded guilty to three felonies: accessing a protected computer with intent to defraud; conspiracy to commit wire fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will have his hearing on December 5.
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Cora is a digital copywriter for SSLs.com. Having eight years of experience in online content creation, she is a versatile writer with an interest in a wide variety of topics, ranging from technology to marketing.