US$22m Fraud at AT&T and T-Mobile US

By Eric Priezkalns 27 Aug 2009

It has been revealed that slack controls over customer data allowed eight people to obtain US$22m worth of equipment from AT&T and T-Mobile US, without paying a cent. The fraudsters stole the identity of customers, ordered equipment in their names, had the delivery of the equipment redirected to themselves, then sold the equipment for a profit. The eight people have now been charged by US federal prosecutors. You can read the story at the Wall Street Journal and The Register.

Eric Priezkalns

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.