More People Busted With Credit-Card Numbers From TJX Breach

from the cha-ching dept

The Secret Service has busted four people in Florida, and recovered 200,000 credit cards from the TJX breach that was disclosed earlier this year. Recovering the credit-card numbers at this point does little more than link the fraudsters to the breach, but they're said to have been used to rack up more than $75 million in fraudulent charges. The people busted here didn't apparently participate in the theft of the credit-card data, but bought them from "known cybercriminals in Eastern Europe" and then used the numbers to make counterfeit cards. In any case, they're way more productive than another group of Florida scammers busted back in March, who only managed to rack up $8 million worth of goods at Sam's and Wal-Mart. Since banks get left holding the bag for this type of fraud, expect more lawsuits as they look to recover their losses from TJX's astounding level of incompetence.
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Filed Under: breach, credit card, security
Companies: tj maxx, tjx


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2007 @ 11:27am

    So let me get this straight...

    Credit card customer data is stolen.
    The theives use it themselves or sell it.
    The thieves or the ones who tried to use the data are arrested.
    Banks try to sue the credit card company is question

    What I want to know (and I think I already do) is other than a free year of credit monitoring what will the people whose data was stolen (leaving them just as, if not more, victimized as the credit card company and the banks) get if this lawsuit were to go down in favor of the banks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2007 @ 12:18pm

      Re: So let me get this straight...

      If the credit card company loses - the Bank will pocket the gain, the credit card company will charge more interest to make up the difference to keep the profit margins.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 13 Jul 2007 @ 11:34am

    Change your information

    Luckily for me, I never shopped at TJ Maxx and now will never need to make a hard decision when the choice is before me, unless I have cash. Of course, if I had shopped at the store once and used my credit card, I would have immediately changed my credit card number(if it wasn't too late). That is, if I heard about it. I figure a lot of people buying discounted irregular clothing probably don't seek out financial or technical news. I would guess TJX didn't send out a notice to all those who had their info stolen. Of course not, they lost it!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2007 @ 7:27pm

    its very simple.. require a password.. even on credit cards.. its not that hard to punch in a 4 digit code that the customer can change at will.. if your card or info is stolen you call and change the code..

    its the ones who just wave thier credit cards without any type of checks by the cashiers that are getting you...

    this way if there is a future breach and info is stolen..EVERYONE's CODE IS RESET! they must go online or call and change thier code before the card can be used again.. basic security vs having no security...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave, 16 Jul 2007 @ 1:49pm

    It Happened to Me

    We never really found out how someone hacked onto my computer at work, but someone got all of my creditcard and back logon info, and tried to get away with a couple of large transactions. Thankfully I found out before any real damage could be done.

    Dave

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave, 16 Jul 2007 @ 1:50pm

    It Happened to Me

    We never really found out how someone hacked onto my computer at work, but someone got all of my creditcard and back logon info, and tried to get away with a couple of large transactions. Thankfully I found out before any real damage could be done.

    Dave

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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