A contractor working on one of Cisco's customer helpdesks has been charged with trying to defraud the networking vendor of more than US$10 million.
Michael Kyereme, a 40-year-old computer technician, was arrested on Friday on charges of trying to defraud Cisco by cheating one of the company's programs that replaces broken or defective parts free of charge.
Kyereme worked as a third-party contractor at Cisco, helping users with general network queries. According to the charges brought by police in New Jersey, he ordered about 280 parts from Cisco over a period of five years worth around US$10m. An article written by the Associated Press says he is now being held in custody, awaiting trial.
In a search of Kyereme's home, investigators allegedly uncovered more than US$3 million worth of parts.
In another incident involving Cisco, Michael Daly, a 53-year-old Massachusetts man, was arrested on Tuesday, accused of fraud after he allegedly used false identities to order replacement parts from Cisco on at least 700 occasions. The scheme involved pretending to be a customer, then ordering parts from the company to "replace" Cisco parts that had broken. The supposedly broken parts were sold on the open market. On occasions when he was challenged, Daly allegedly returned worthless parts.
Cisco declined to comment on the alleged frauds.
Colin Barker reported for ZDNet UK from London.
As a huge security product and solution vendor, this goes to show that social engineering and the like still are a huge risk even for people like Cisco. I still regularly talk my way past so-called security staff, get onto lift floors I shouldn't just in normal day-to-day business. (I'm not trying to defraud anyone - it sometimes is just convenient when you are in a rush for a meeting or simply to get lunch when your escort has already left the building for the day). And this was in the last week at a major telco and a state government department.