Fact discovery is due to be complete by Dec. 6 in Amazon’s suit to stop defendant Elly Infotech from running an impersonation scam that dupes consumers into buying fake Amazon support services for activating Prime Video on their devices, said a case management order (docket 2:23-cv-02353) signed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Dominic Lanza for Arizona in Phoenix. Expert depositions will be complete by March 5, said the order. Amazon’s suit against Elly Infotech was one of three it filed in a single day in which it alleged that the defendants and the call centers they work with are part of the “scam ecosystem” that enables the impersonation schemes (see 2311120001). Davis Wright represents Amazon in all three lawsuits. Elly Infotech denies impersonating Amazon to deceive consumers and alleges that another unknown company is using its name to perpetuate the scam (see 2403210043).

By buying blocklisted, carrier-locked phones that are “useless” on networks in the U.S., “sending them to unlockers to tamper with locking software and unlock the devices from carrier networks, and shipping them overseas where they have no actual use on the Xfinity network,” GlobalguruTech (GGT) and owner Jakob Zahara are “materially altering XM Phones,” said Xfinity Mobile’s reply Monday (docket 2:22-cv-01950) in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix in support of its motion to file a second amended complaint (SAC). The proposed SAC alleges the defendants resold more than 20 XM phones that they knew were on a blocklist at the time they bought and resold the devices, said the reply. But GGT didn’t notify its customers that the devices that they branded as Xfinity wouldn’t operate like a genuine XM phone and wouldn’t be operable on the Xfinity Mobile network “or any wireless network in the United States,” the reply said. In dismissing Xfinity’s conspiracy claim in the amended complaint, the court concluded that just because the defendants may have used unlockers to facilitate unlocking XM phones, “it does not mean there is an agreement between the two to commit some tort." But it demonstrates that the defendants “use third-party unlockers to materially alter phones,” the reply said. Xfinity's Nov. 16, 2022, complaint alleges GGT, Zahara and their co-conspirators are handset traffickers who exploit financial incentives to acquire phones by using unlawful methods to circumvent the procedures put in place to protect Xfinity Mobile and its legitimate customers -- and then resell the phones for substantial profit.

Plaintiffs Christopher Rosing, Jarrett Civelli and Jeffrey Haagenson seek the dismissal of Lumen Technologies as a defendant in their fraud complaint against CenturyLink, said their unopposed motion Friday (docket 3:23-cv-01739) in U.S. District Court for Oregon in Portland. The plaintiffs’ class action alleges that CenturyLink reneged on its promises to lock in monthly internet prices for residential Price For Life program subscribers who remained in good standing, maintained service at the same residential address without interruption and didn’t change their CenturyLink service plans (see 2311270013). The motion to dismiss Lumen from the class action “is made for good cause,” said the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs have reviewed the jurisdictional arguments about Lumen, and the parties “have agreed to engage in a further exchange of information outside of formal motion practice in the hopes of resolving the dispute” while minimizing the burden on the court, said the motion.

Linda Surrency and defendant AT&T held a mediation conference April 8 but “have reached an impasse” on her Fair Credit Reporting Act claims against the carrier, said mediator Terrence White’s report Thursday (docket 8:23-cv-02323) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. Surrency alleged that AT&T, Equifax and the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) were “plainly deficient” in their investigations of the plaintiff’s credit reporting dispute over identity theft when a fraudulent DirecTV account was opened under her name (see 2310160035). She has since settled her claims against Equifax and NCTUE. AT&T contends that Surrency should be suing the “proper party,” DirecTV, asserting that AT&T and DirecTV “are different companies” (see 2404170003).

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the parties’ request in MacClelland v. Cellco Partnership to continue to hold the case in abeyance for an additional 90 days, said its order Thursday (docket 22-16020). In November, Verizon and the plaintiffs asked that the case be removed from the argument calendar and held in abeyance pending consummation of a settlement in principle with 27 consumers (see 2311120007). The case originated from a November 2021 class action challenging Verizon’s alleged practice of padding consumers’ monthly wireless bills with a secretive “administrative charge” that kept climbing above the flat monthly rates it was advertising.

Software services company Syndio provided Twitter with all the services it invoiced the company for under a master cloud services agreement (MSA), but the social media company breached the agreement by failing to timely pay recent invoices, alleged a breach of contract complaint (docket 3:24-cv-02316) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. An Oct. 29 MSA between the two companies sets out terms of the three-year agreement under which Syndio would provide its PayEQ and PayFinder software and support services. Twitter paid the first annual invoice in November 2021, the complaint said. After Elon Musk bought the company in October 2022, amid Musk’s “extreme belt-tightening that amounted to requiring nearly everyone to whom it owes money to sue,” Twitter stopped paying rent on some of its offices and “stopped paying several vendors whose services it was still using,” the complaint said. Syndio invoiced Twitter on Nov. 3, 2022, for $129,750, due on Jan. 2, 2023, and on Nov. 2, 2023, for $129,750, due Jan. 2, 2024, the complaint said. The plaintiff provided all services due, didn’t receive complaints from Twitter, and Twitter never terminated the MSA, it said. Syndio has corresponded with its remaining contacts at the company, but Twitter and X have “offered no justification for not paying,” it said. The Seattle-based company seeks compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial, costs of the lawsuit and pre- and post-judgment interest.

The court shouldn't grant Zuania Vazquez-Padilla’s motion to stay discovery in a fraud complaint over Facebook content moderation, said defendant Cognizant Technology Solutions’ opposition (docket 8:23-cv-02607) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. Discovery in Vazquez-Padilla’s case would unfairly prolong stays of discovery in two other matters that are “tangentially-related arbitrations,” it said. The plaintiff noted in her motion that the arbitrators stayed discovery until discovery proceeds in her case and argued that staying discovery in her case would “'delay discovery’" in the arbitrations and prevent those victims from “obtaining timely justice,” said the filing. Vazquez-Padilla’s response suggests that Cognizant and the court’s prior stays “are to blame for the arbitration plaintiffs’ inability to obtain 'timely justice,'” said the opposition. That argument “cannot be farther from the truth,” it said, saying discovery originally proceeded in the arbitrations as a matter of course until Vazquez-Padilla’s counsel “intentionally violated protective orders the arbitrators had entered by using confidential discovery material” from arbitrations in Aguilo et al. v. Cognizant Technology Solutions, it said. Discovery is stayed in the arbitrations because of Vazquez-Padilla’s counsel’s “intentional misconduct,” and the parties’ subsequent agreement to continue the stays, it said. “If anything,” said the opposition, plaintiff’s counsel’s “attempt to take advantage of his intentional discovery violations (again) to avoid a stay is yet another reason a discovery stay is particularly warranted here.” Vazquez-Padilla worked as a content moderator for Cognizant, which previously provided that service for Facebook. Its content moderators reviewed postings on Facebook to determine whether they violated the social media platform’s terms of use. Vazquez-Padilla claims reviewing graphic content caused her to develop psychological injuries.

U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes for Western Missouri in Kansas City granted T-Mobile’s unopposed motion to extend to May 8 its deadline to answer the plaintiffs’ March 8 consolidated consumer class action complaint in the multidistrict litigation arising from T-Mobile’s 2022 data breach (see 2403110012), said the judge’s signed order Wednesday (docket 4:23-md-03073). The plaintiffs now have until July 8 to respond to any T-Mobile motion to dismiss or compel their claims to arbitration, and T-Mobile’s reply in support of their motions is due 30 days later, said the order. The class action alleges that T-Mobile understands it has an “enormous responsibility” to protect its customers’ personal information against cyberattacks, but that it “completely failed” to meet those obligations.

Pinterest recruited a research scientist and convinced him through “false representations” to quit his “stable employment” to bring his specialized knowledge of real-time bidding to the social media and image-sharing company, alleged a fraud complaint Wednesday (docket 24CV435463) in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Local resident Seyed Ziaemohseni interviewed at Pinterest in April 2022 to discuss a senior-level technical position in the company’s “struggling real-time bidding advertising system,” said the complaint. In subsequent meetings, Ziaemohseni emphasized that his background was in research and data, and that he isn’t a traditional software engineer, the complaint said. He explained he wasn’t looking to switch careers to become a software engineer working in Java programming language and that he didn’t have any “meaningful experience” with the programming language in the 16 years since he worked with it as a student. Ziaemohseni was told the senior-level position would involve mentoring junior team members working on the company’s real-time bidding platform, that he would not be required to write “production-level Java code himself” and that he would have a support team to do that for him, the complaint said. Over several months, the plaintiff went through seven rounds of interviews at Pinterest, with two concentrating on software engineering skills. Though he “resoundingly failed” one of the software engineering interviews due to his lack of experience in the field -- and that was making it difficult to get him approved for hire -- Ziaemohseni's interviewers told him they were talking to senior leadership to convince them to hire him on his expertise in real-time bidding, it said. They asked him not to start conversations with any other companies in the meantime, it said. Pinterest extended an offer to Ziaemohseni as a senior software engineer, he resigned from his previous job, and he took the Pinterest position in October, it said. The scope of the job turned out to be “vastly different” from the one he was expected to fill, it said. Despite having successfully launched a new control algorithm in March 2023, “with everything implemented in Java by himself,” Ziaemohseni received a negative assessment the next month due to “performance deficiencies” with development of Java code, the complaint said. The assessment “severely increased Mr. Ziaemohseni’s work-related stress and anxiety and took a toll on his emotional wellbeing, causing him to seek mental health treatment for the first time,” the complaint said. The plaintiff’s “alleged Java-related performance deficiencies” were addressed again in September, when he was given the choice to accept a monthlong “Corrective Action Plan” or separate from the company, the complaint said. Ziaemohseni chose to leave, and his final day of employment was Nov. 3, it said. The plaintiff is suing Pinterest for promissory fraud and intentional and negligent misrepresentation. He seeks compensatory, punitive, incidental and consequential damages, plus legal expenses and costs, the complaint said. Pinterest didn't comment Thursday.

Samsung and plaintiff Antonio Lewis agreed that Lewis’ foldable smartphone fraud claims should be dismissed with prejudice, with each party bearing its costs and attorneys’ fees, said their stipulation of dismissal Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-10882) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan. Lewis of Charlottesville, Virginia, alleged in his December class action that Samsung’s advertised claim that its Z Fold 3 smartphone can be folded and unfolded at least 200,000 times -- the number of such actions a user would perform in five years -- is based on “flawed” testing methodology and “not representative of real-world usage” (see 2301030027).