Feds crack phone clone scam that cost Sprint $15m

Federal prosecutors have uncovered a scam that used tens of thousands of cloned cellphones to defraud Sprint out of $15m in lost long distance revenue.

The operation dates back to at least the latter half of 2009, when cellular customers began complaining that they were billed for international calls they didn't make, according to court documents made public on Wednesday. When Sprint employees looked into the matter, they discovered that many of the calls were made from hundreds of miles away from where the customers lived and within minutes of other calls made from the customers' homes.

Eventually, the Sprint investigators discovered that electronic credentials belonging to “tens of thousands of its customers” were used to make international calls that would have cost $15m had they been billed at the going rate. What's more, many of the defrauded customers' online accounts were breached so that changes could be made to passwords, international calling features and other settings.