Spammers Wreak Havoc at AT&T Call Center

BATON ROUGE, La. (CN) - AT&T Mobility is trying to unmask spammers who sent phony messages to call-center employees telling them to go home "in an orderly fashion."

"Defendants are using anonymous gmail.com email accounts and have sent five or more emails to hundreds of AT&T employees located in the aforementioned call centers. These emails are being distributed via internal AT&T email distribution lists. As a result, AT&T has been forced to reconfigure its email distribution systems, perform scans for malicious programs, and install electronic safety measures - all of which resulted in damage to AT&T's computer systems," the complaint states.

AT&T Mobility sued John Does aka (four gmail.com addresses) including "ImTooUppityForThisJob," and XYZ corporations.

"Using the anonymous email address ... and falsely identifying themselves as Patrick Reynolds, defendants sent an electronic communication to AT&T, certain of AT&T's employees, and AT&T call centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jackson, Mississippi, and Austin, Texas on April 13, 2012 wherein defendants complained of certain issues regarding AT&T call center employee policies," the complaint states.

(The email address is stated in the complaint. A CNS editor removed it from this article to avoid publicizing an allegedly malicious spammer.)

In another instance, "Using the anonymous email address ... and falsely identifying themselves as Patricia Terrell, defendants sent an electronic communication to AT&T, certain of AT&T's employees, and AT&T call centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi on April 18, 2012 wherein Defendants falsely stated that the Baton Rouge and Jackson call centers would be closing on August 15, 2012 due to low call volume and that employees would be contacted regarding relocation and/or severance packages," according to the complaint.

Another email, sent from the email address ... said 'AT&T call centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi on April 19, 2012 wherein defendants falsely stated that all employees would be required to wear business casual attire effective May 1, 2012,' the complaint states.

"Using the anonymous email address ... falsely identifying themselves as Susie Byars, defendants sent an electronic communication to AT&T, certain of AT&T's employees, and AT&T call centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi on April 23, 2012 wherein defendants falsely stated that due to an emergency in the building, all employees were to clock out for the remainder of their shift. The AT&T employees were further told '[p]lease do not panic and do this in an orderly fashion.'"

Another email "initiated a fraudulent survey regarding safety concerns," according to the complaint.

"All of the above emails sent to AT&T, certain of AT&T's employees, and AT&T call centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jackson, Mississippi, and Austin, Texas by Defendants were sent using anonymous email accounts created through Google's gmail services and distributed via AT&T internal email distribution lists," the complaint states. "Since Google appears to have provided electronic mail services to Defendants, AT&T will need to subpoena Google to determine the true owners and operators of [four gmail addresses.]"

AT&T claims the emails have disrupted services at its call centers and have "affected AT&T's ability to provide services to its customers. This disruption in service has resulted in additional customer service costs as well as increased overhead costs as AT&T was required to compensate its employees for significant non-productive time."

It seeks damages for violation of the federal computer fraud and abuse act.

It is represented by Gary Russo, with Jones, Walker, Waechter, Pointevent, Carrere & Denegre of New Orleans.

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