Launching the U.S. Justice Department's largest identity-theft case, federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they have charged 11 people with stealing and selling 40 million credit-card and debit-card numbers obtained from several major U.S. retailers.The targeted retailers include TJX Cos., BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Boston Market, Barnes & Noble Inc., Sports Authority Inc. and DSW Inc., prosecutors said. "This is the single largest and most complex identity-theft case ever charged, " U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said during a press conference in Boston, where some of the charges were filed. Prosecutors have filed other charges in San Diego and New York.
The identity-theft ring caused "widespread losses by banks, retailers and consumers," Mukasey said.
| The data thefts date back to 2003 and continued through this year, prosecutors said in court filings. |
In charges filed in Boston, prosecutors allege that three defendants hacked into the wireless computer networks of nine major retailers and installed computer programs that captured consumers' credit-card numbers and other account information. The defendants allegedly concealed the credit-card data in computer servers they controlled in Eastern Europe and the United States.
Prosecutors allege that the defendants sold the credit-card data over the Internet to others who encoded the stolen information onto 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. Prosecutors said three of the people charged in the theft are U.S. citizens. Others are from Estonia, Ukraine, China and Belarus. Some of the defendants are also facing identity-theft charges in New York for allegedly hacking into the computer network of the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain.
One of the leading defendants, Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez of Miami, faces life in prison for his alleged role in the scheme. He faces several charges including computer fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Mukasey said the charges sent a clear message to would-be identity thieves: " We will track you down wherever you are in the world," he said.