NEW YORK — Two men are accused of selling hacked smartphones to ride-sharing drivers so they could collect false markups and higher fares.
Eliahou Paldiel, 52, of Queens, New York, and Carlos Arturo Suarez Palacios, 54, of Brick Township, New Jersey, were charged Wednesday with wire fraud and money laundering.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said the men ran the scam for nearly six years, recruiting more than 800 drivers who earned more than $40 million.
According to court documents, the men compared their services to drugs. In one text message they wrote, “Once you start, you’ll get withdrawal symptoms when you don’t get your fix anymore,” and in another, “I get them addicted to the software, even a drug dealer gives them a few extra grams of weed to start with.”
GPS spoofing and “Screwber” app
Paldiel and Suarez allegedly sold drivers phones that were “jailbroken” or “rooted” to bypass the latest security updates. This allowed them to install a fake GPS app that tricked drivers into thinking they were traveling in areas with markups when they were not.
They are also accused of installing a so-called “Screwber” app that allowed drivers to choose more lucrative trips.
The duo allegedly explained to drivers how to avoid detection, with instructions such as: “Using 2 iPhones with FakeGPS is very, very risky. If you need FakeGPS for the airport, I recommend doing it once a day. Do it when you wake up in the morning before you go to the airport.”
It is unclear exactly how much they earned from the plot, but investigators believe it was more than $1.5 million. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison for each count.
