UPDATE: Prosecutors Charge 11 With Massive Identity Theft
August 5, 2008
(Updates with details, starting fourth paragraph.)
By Brent Kendall
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Launching the Justice Department's largest identity-theft case, federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they have charged 11 people with stealing 40 million credit-card and debit-card numbers from shoppers at several U.S. retailers.
The retailers that were targeted include TJX Cos. (TJX), BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ), OfficeMax Inc. (OMX), Boston Market, Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) and Sports Authority Inc. (TSA), prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said three of the people charged in the theft are U.S. citizens. Others are from Estonia, Ukraine, China and Belarus.
In charges filed in Boston, prosecutors allege that three defendants hacked into the wireless computer networks of major retailers and installed computer programs that would capture consumers' credit card numbers and other account information.
Prosecutors allege that the defendants sold the credit card data over the Internet to others who encoded the stolen information on blank cards and used those cards to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATM machines.
In related charges filed in San Diego, prosecutors charged eight people with operating an international distribution ring of stolen credit and debit cards.
The San Diego indictment alleges that one of the defendants alone received $11 million in proceeds from selling stolen credit card information.
"This is the single largest and most complex identity-theft case ever charged," said U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey at a Boston press conference.
Some of the defendants are also facing identity theft charges in New York.
Independent Associate
Esther 585-503-4114
http://www.estherpinkston.com
Posted By: Esther Pinkston
Wednesday, August 13th 2008 at 9:15AM
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