By KUNA,
Washington : Eleven people faced charges Tuesday in connection with the theft of over 40 million credit and debit card numbers, grafted from nine major US retail chains, in what US Justice Department described as the largest hacking and identity theft cases ever prosecuted.
The indictments, by federal grand juries in Boston and San Diego charged three Americans and defendants from Estonia, Ukraine, China, and Belarus, with identity theft, fraud, computer intrusion, and conspiracy in what officials described as a the “single largest and most complex identity theft case ever charged” in the US, according to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The alleged conspirators targeted at least nine major US retail chains, including Office Max, Barnes and Nobles, Forever 21, and DSW Shoe Warehouse, tapping into the retailers’ wireless networks and using “sniffer” software to identify credit card information and passwords and account information.
They then, supposedly, sold the information to other criminals in the US and in Eastern Europe and encoded the card numbers to blank cards and used to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from automated teller (ATM) machines.
The alleged ring leader is Albert “Segvec” Gonzales of Miami, Florida, a former confidential informant for the Secret Service. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if he is convicted, the Justice department said.