BOSTON - One of 11 individuals charged in the data security breach at TJX Cos. and numerous other retail chains pleaded guilty to his role in the largest ever theft of credit card information.
As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, 23-year-old Damon Toey agreed to testify against his accomplices in thefts at TJX, BJ Wholesale Club, Sports Authority, OfficeMax, Dave & Buster's, Barnes & Noble and several others which cost credit unions millions of dollars to replace cards and pay for fraud losses.
The card information was sold openly over the Internet and used to manufacture counterfeit cards that were used all over the world-as far flung as China, Latvia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Spain, Russia, France and England-to make millions of dollars in purchases and withdraw cash from ATMs.
The alleged ringleader of the group and a close friend of Toey's, Albert Gonzalez, 31, appeared in court later the same day and pleaded innocent to charges.
Toey and Gonzalez drove around and scanned the wireless networks of major retailers to find security holes, known as "war driving," then installed "sniffers" on the retailers' systems that recorded the card information, before sending it to a secure server in Latvia, according to prosecutors. The data was then sold over the Internet to traffickers who used it to create counterfeit credit and debit cards, they said.
Prosecutors trace the partnership of Toey and Gonzalez back to 2000 when the two were involved in an East Coast ring known as shadowcrew that created counterfeit credit and debit cards that were used to siphon millions of dollars from ATMs from New York to Florida.
Gonzalez, known online as "soupnazi" or "segvec," was charged in connection with that case and agreed to become an informant for the U.S. Secret Service. The Feds allowed him to move in 2004 from New Jersey to Miami, where most of the retail hacking took place. Gonzalez and Toey were charged in August after federal agents realized he was working against them, even tipping off Toey, who he had brought to Miami to work with him, to the possibility of being caught.
In a new revelation, the government said during last week's court hearings they have evidence that the group breached the security of many more businesses than previously disclosed.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
