TracFone Locks Up Another "Unlocked" Court Case.

A federal district court issued a $1 million judgment in favor of TracFone Wireless Inc. against a defendant who participated in an unlawful wireless phone hacking scheme by purchasing bulk quantities of phones to be resold and unlocked. And this isn't the first time TracFone has won in court.

TracFone Wireless Inc. is the largest prepaid wireless provider in the United States, and it's a subsidiary of Mexico's America Movil, the fourth largest wireless carrier in the world and the largest in all of the Americas, serving more than 141 million cell phone subscribers

The judgment, handed down March 5 by U.S. Judge David C. Godbey of the Northern District of Texas, prohibits defendant James Ray Thomas, Jr. (aka Jim Thomas Hollis aka James L. Ford) and his co-conspirators from "continuing to engage in the bulk purchase, sale or unlocking/reflashing of TracFone's wireless phones."

TracFone was represented by Carlton Fields attorneys James B. Baldinger and Steven J. Brodie. According to the attorneys, TracFone's lawsuit against Thomas is part of a nationwide effort to stop criminals across the country who steal the subsidies TracFone provides to make its wireless phones affordable for legitimate customers. Such thieves purchase subsidized TracFone prepaid phones, hack out the software in those phones and ship them outside the United States, where they are resold as new to unsuspecting consumers in other countries for a substantial profit.

The scheme allegedly makes extensive use of "runners" who circumvent the limitations at retail stores that prohibit sales of more than two phones per customer by making purchases at multiple stores, using different cashiers within each store, and sometimes changing their clothing or appearance to deceive store clerks into selling them multiple phones, the lawyers add. According to press reports, the FBI has issued alerts suggesting the proceeds of this conduct are being used to finance terrorist organizations.

TracFone has filed 28 lawsuits against more than 80 defendants in federal courts throughout the country as part of a concerted effort to stop ...