14 DAY TRIAL // 46-year-old Shahin Abdollahi, and 35-year-old Jeffrey Thomas Wilkinson, both from California, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and wire fraud, and one count of wire fraud.
According to authorities, the two hacked into at least 13 point-of-sale systems located at Subway restaurants from all over the US. Once they gained fraudulent access to the devices, they added over $40,000 (31,000 EUR) in value to gift cards.
Some of the fraudulent gift cards were allegedly sold on websites such as eBay and Craigslist by Wilkinson, while others were utilized by both suspects to make purchases at Subway.
So how did they pull it off?
Abdollahi owned Subway franchises between 2005 and 2008. Later, he operated a company called POS Doctor, which sold and installed POS systems to Subway restaurants located in various parts of the United States.
Prosecutors believe that starting with 2011, the men hacked into at least 13 of the devices sold by Abdollahi.
This is not the first time when hackers target Subway restaurants. Back in 2011, four Romanians were charged with hacking into the computers at over 150 establishments. One of them has already been sentenced to 21 months in prison.