Samport

The leader of a gang which used financial data stolen during the computer security breach at TJX has been sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay nearly US$600,000 in restitution.

Irving Escobar pleaded guilty in March to taking part in a criminal operation which used counterfeit credit cards featuring card data stolen from TJX’s IT systems in December 2006. The gang is not believed to have been involved in the hacking of U.S-based retailer TJX's computer systems to steal the data. Nineteen-year-old Escobar is a resident of Miami, Florida. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, whose office prosecuted the case, says Escobar led the operation and coordinated the use of the cloned cards to purchase gift cards at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club in "a modern-day version of money laundering". The gang then redeemed these gift cards to purchase jewelry and electronic equipment, McCollum says. U.S. authorities estimated a total loss of US$3 million could be attributed to the gang on a nationwide scale. Five other gang members who were accused of playing lesser roles in the operation have also pleaded guilty to similar charges in Florida courts. Dianelly Hernandez, Julio Alberti, Reinier Alvarez and Zenia Llorente were all sentenced to probation in August. Escobar's mother, Nair Alvarez, pleaded guilty in March and was deported to Venezuela.

TJX warned in January 2007 that fraudsters had managed to steal 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers during a period of over 18 months by hacking into its internal computer network.

Source:
http://www.epaynews.com/index.cgi?survey=true&ref=browse&f=view&id=1190369559837016158&block=