BOSTON – Another suspect in the hacking of wireless systems at TJX Cos. and several other retailers, pleaded guilty to identity theft charges last week.
Christopher Scott, 25, the second member of the ring to plead guilty in the case, earned more than $400,000 from this role in the scheme, which he will forfeit as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Earler, one of Scott’s accomplices, Damon Toey, 23, pleaded guilty to four felony counts for his role.
Scott and Toey and alleged ringleader Albert Gonzalez would "war drive" through the parking lots of major retailers to determine which networks were ripe for hacking and succeeded in tapping into systems at TJX, BJ Wholesale Club, Sports Authority, Forever 21, Barnes & Nobles, Boston Market, OfficeMax, DSW and several others in the biggest online theft of credit card data ever.
Scott told investigators he broke into the TJX network in July 2005 through two wireless access points at a TJX-owned Marshall's store in Miami. He used the access he gained to download various commands onto TJX servers containing payment card data. In September of that year, with help from Gonzalez, they first started downloading payment card data from TJX servers in Framingham, Mass.
But the case may be more complicated against the 34-year-old Gonzalez, who was working as a government informant while he was war-driving with the Scott and Toey to hack into TJX and the other stores. Gonzalez was arrested in 2003 for his role in the BJ’s case, which victimized as many as 200 credit unions, and afterwards he agreed to work with the Feds in subsequent cases.
The ring used the information from the various companies and sold it over the Internet to unaffiliated parties all over the world, who manufactured their own credit cards. Those cards were used to buy millions of dollars in merchandise or to withdraw cash at thousands of ATMs.
