Shahin Abdollahi, a former Subway franchise owner has reportedly admitted to hacking point-of-sale terminals at the sandwich chain from remote locations. He used his access to top off gift cards to the–stealing around $40,000 all told.
Abdollahi was the proud owner of several Subway franchises in Southern California until 2008, when he quit to pursue his dream–starting up a company called POS Doctor. The firm sold and installed point-of-sale systems to Subway restaurant franchises all across the U.S.The entrepreneurs’ goals clearly changed at some point as, according to prosecutors, in 2011 Abdollahi and co-conspirator Jeffrey Wilkinson started using their access to remotely hack machines.
The fruits of their labor were sandwiches, since the men’s scheme involved fraudulently reloading gift card that the pair of master criminals then used to buy sandwiches. Wilkinson additionally sold fraudulent gift cards on eBay and Craigslist.
All told, the pair broke into 1113 POS terminals.Wilkinson has pleaded guilty is awaitng sentencing later this month.. Abdollahi has now also pleaded, admitting to one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. He will likely be sentenced in August.
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