EBay Inc.'s online ticket reselling unit StubHub was targeted by hackers who used stolen data to buy Elton John and Justin Timberlake tickets, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said, as he announced six indictments in the case.
Vadim Polyakov, 30, and Nikolay Matveychuk, 21, were among three Russians and three Americans charged with using data from StubHub accounts and stolen credit card numbers to buy more than 3,500 tickets for events that also included prime seats at New York Yankees games, Vance said.
The investigation was carried out in cooperation with New York Police Department, City of London police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a case spanning from Russia to New York.
The arrests follow last week's report from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that security breaches exposing customers' personal information are growing and cost state businesses $1.37 billion last year. StubHub was defrauded out of about $1 million, with the money laundered through U.K. banks, according to Vance.
About 1,600 StubHub customer accounts were compromised last year after hackers obtained login and password information through data breaches of other websites and retailers, or by deploying malware on personal computers, the company said in a statement today. StubHub's systems weren't affected, the company said.
"We are pleased to see these cybercriminals brought to justice," Glenn Lehrman, a StubHub spokesman, said in the statement.
StubHub, based in San Francisco, said authorities "around the world" had been investigating organized crime targeting the ticketing industry.
