[Dataloss] follow-up: Leader in TJX Fraud Gets 5-Year Sentence

[security curmudgeon]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alerts at infosecnews.org>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118973246548127272.html

By Joseph Pereira
The Wall Street Journal
September 14, 2007

Irving Escobar, a ring leader in a TJX Cos.-linked credit-card fraud, was 
sentenced to five years in prison and has been ordered to pay nearly 
$600,000 in restitution for damages resulting from stolen financial 
information, Florida officials said.

The sentencing follows a guilty plea by Mr. Escobar, 19 years old, of 
Miami, to charges that he participated in a 10-person operation that used 
counterfeit cards bearing the stolen credit-card data of hundreds of TJX 
customers to purchase approximately $3 million in goods and gift cards. 
The penalty is the stiffest handed down so far in the case.

The thefts were carried out at a string of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores 
in Florida during the second half of 2006, authorities said. Some of the 
merchandise was bought with gift cards that had previously been purchased 
with the fraudulent credit cards, a modern-day version of money 
laundering, officials said.

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