AT&T Employees Installed Malware on Their PCs to Aid Phone Unlocking Service

AT&T has filed a lawsuit against its three former call center employees, accusing them of running malware on their systems to aid a phone unlocking service by providing them the unlock codes of AT&T.

Almost all mobile carriers around the globe sell phones together with their mobile plans. These phones are usually locked, so customers won’t be able to jump ship to another carrier without fully paying for the phone or by finishing their contract.

In the US, forced by the FCC, AT&T has to provide unlock codes for all users who have finished out their contract or have paid a fee to leave the service.

This code is usually obtained from AT&T call centers using a special service called Torch.

AT&T has accused three of its former employees namely Kyra Evans, Nguyen Lam and Marc Sapatin for intentionally running a malware in their systems to handover the unlock codes of the company products to another company which provides the service of unlocking preset codes,according to legal documents filed in a District Court in Seattle.

The company which is held responsible for providing the malware is Swift Unlocks, A web portal that provides phone unlocking services.Court documents also reveal that these employees were being paid $1000 per week by Swift Unlocks, to run the malware on their systems.

Now AT&T is claiming that it has lost thousands of unlock codes and resultant subscribers. A doubt is also being expressed that like AT&T other companies may also be facing the same problems unknowingly. This is because on checking Swift Unlock’s website one can see similar services being offered for some other carriers too and it reveals that Swift Unlock is offering to unlock any AT&T model for $20.