Fergie's Tech Blog

TJX, Polo Data Surfaces in Credit Card Bust

A Ziff Davis Internet article by Evan Schuman, via eWeek, reports that:

After more than $75 million in bogus credit card charges, several Cuban nationals in Florida have been arrested with more than 200,000 credit card account numbers, many of which came from the TJX and Polo Ralph Lauren data breaches, according to U.S. Secret Service officials, commenting on the July 9 announced arrests.

The numbers were sent to the Florida defendants, who specialize in manufacturing bogus credit cards complete with embossing, logos, holograms and properly encoded magnetic strips, from a group of Eastern European residents who specialize in collecting the stolen credit card numbers, the Secret Service said.

That Eastern European group of fiduciary Fagans obtained those numbers from many different sources, but many of the numbers were traced back to two specific major retail data breaches: the 2006 TJX breach and a 2005 Polo Ralph Lauren breach, said a Secret Service case agent involved in the investigation and who asked that his name not be used.

Credit card numbers from the TJX theft have reportedly found themselves in multiple bogus credit card and giftcard probes, including a major gift fraud probe— which was also in Florida— as well as investigations in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.

posted by Fergie @ 7/10/2007 07:49:00 PM