T-Mobile Employee Made $25 Million by hacking into a carrier and unlocking smartphones

Argishti Khudaverdyan, a 44-year-old American, now faces several years in prison after starting an illegal business behind the back of his employer. He worked for the operator T-Mobile Store and hacked employees’ credentials to unlock customers’ smartphones for a certain amount. In 4 years of activity, this system has raised no less than 25 million dollars.

Like any operator, T-Mobile uses a blocking system on its smartphones to prevent its customers from switching to the competition before the end of their contract. This practice also prevents users from trying to resell the device at a higher price in the parallel market.

Although very widespread, this technique is therefore not to everyone’s taste and Argishti Khudaverdyan saw it as a great opportunity to earn some pocket money. This 44-year-old American was indeed employed by T-Mobile until his resignation in 2017 after his suspicious activities.

It all started in 2014 when he decided to send a phishing campaign to his colleagues from his Los Angeles store to steal their access to the company’s internal network. With these identifiers, Argishti can now unlock smartphones purchased from the operator, a service it will of course offer for a certain amount

He becomes a millionaire by unlocking smartphones

Soon, Argishti Khudaverdyan also started offering his services to smartphone thieves so that they could resell them later. To make himself known, he posts ads on sites like unlocks247.com, swiftunlocked.com, or even unlockitall.com, sometimes claiming that the unlocking service is provided directly by T-Mobile so as not to arouse suspicion from the customers.

In 2017, therefore, Argishti Khudaverdyan was spotted by the operator when he again tried to hack into one of his colleagues. He was fired on the spot but continued his activity anyway. He will not be arrested until 2019. It is estimated that the scammer hacked about 50 internal T-Mobile accounts, making $25 million from his company. He now faces several decades in prison.