Two arrested in the Target hacking case.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Snip: "McALLEN, Texas (http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?form=MSNNDL&q=Mcallen, Texas, United States) — Account information stolen during the Target security breach is now being divided up and sold off regionally, a South Texas police chief said Monday following the arrest of two Mexican citizens who authorities say arrived at the border with 96 fraudulent credit cards."

Article:http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/2-nabbed-at-texas-border-in-target-credit-card-fraud-case

[Gargamel]

96 down, 69,999,904 left to go.

[Wolferz]

But a federal official said later there currently was no connection between the arrests and the retailer's credit card data theft.



Too bad that the people arrested were only end users and not the cyber thieves.:-?

[vienna]

There was a report on the radio news here in Los Angeles (CBS) about the Traget incident. They interviewed a cyber security expert who is very familiar with the case. He said the authorities know who did the actual theft of the customer data, but can do nothing since the thiefs are out of their jurisdictiion. Also, the initial hack was discovered by a teen in Eastern Europe who did not, himself, engage in the theft, but "published" the hack....


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[GoldenRivet]

I'm doubtful that much of the data is of much value by now I'm sure most of those accounts or card numbers have been deactivated.

[Mr Quatro]

Your thread title is not a real mistake, but these aren't the same people that stole millions of ID's from Targets data base back in December.

These dudes were just using made up target cards and had charged much more in local Texas stores on other cards before being caught trying to go back to Mexico.

The real thieves of the Target information were traced to a 17 year old hacker in Russia who sold his hacker program online to the real thieves who in turn hacked Target and Niemen Marcus ...

Never fear the NSA is tracking them right now :o

[Webster]

yep, this has NOTHING to do with the target case and this is just everyday routine identity theft credit card theft.

they just want to make some sort of claim that they are DOING SOMETHING about the target case when in truth they cant do anything about it but don't want the public to know that.

in truth this is just as likely stolen sign up info from Obama care website which all security experts say is less secure then a childs piggy bank.


I'm doubtful that much of the data is of much value by now I'm sure most of those accounts or card numbers have been deactivated. you would be wrong to assume that, I have 3 relatives who shop at target and every one of them had to argue with the credit card companies who did NOT want to reissue a new card number to them. they kept trying to say they would only issue new numbers to those whose accounts showed signs of illegal activity. the basic truth is they don't want to do the right thing and replace them to protect against theft because its cheaper to do nothing and only react to the thefts after they occur. rather silly from the customers point of view but it makes good business sense on their side.

one of my relatives got her new card by insisting but the other two just got tired of begging for help and decided to report the card as lost or stolen to get new numbered cards.

[vienna]

Here's an interesting new twist:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579332990728181278?mg=ren o64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB1000 1424052702304027204579332990728181278.html


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[soopaman2]

A friend of mine got hit by this.

He was looking for an apartment in Manhattan, (which is big bucks, and big credit checking) and this came up.

I feel sad for him because he breaks his backside at his job, little appreciated, yet vital to the operation.

The credit agencies are giving him hell, despite them knowing people were hacked. They do not care.:doh:

[Armistead]

Webster is correct, right now it's cheaper for them not to change or use improved software....regardless of the hell it will place on customers.....

I had my identity stolen a 6 years ago, it was a nightmare, it ruined my credit for years, insanity dealing with numerous credit card companies and detectives and regardless always trying to force cost on me. Heck, they even arrested the guy, he posted bail and went home to Mexico, only to hit me again a year later...this time doing about 12K damage in California....After numerous hand signatures test, they still said I did it, even though I've never been near that state...It finally resolved. I had to go through a long process of changing SS numbers, etc...and spent close to 5K to fight and defend myself...

I hope it's an easier process to deal with today.

[Webster]

Webster is correct, right now it's cheaper for them not to change or use improved software....regardless of the hell it will place on customers.....

I had my identity stolen a 6 years ago, it was a nightmare, it ruined my credit for years, insanity dealing with numerous credit card companies and detectives and regardless always trying to force cost on me. Heck, they even arrested the guy, he posted bail and went home to Mexico, only to hit me again a year later...this time doing about 12K damage in California....After numerous hand signatures test, they still said I did it, even though I've never been near that state...It finally resolved. I had to go through a long process of changing SS numbers, etc...and spent close to 5K to fight and defend myself...

I hope it's an easier process to deal with today.

sadly I think its even worse today because now your info is shared by thousands of crooks over the web so you may be under attack the rest of your life unless people go to the extremes like you did and get all new identity.

if any of you out there know someone who has a problem please do them the favor of telling them not to follow the credit card companies process and bypass all that by reporting the card as stolen so you want to cancel it and request a new card. this is the fastest and simplest way to resolve the matter for them and they can then move on.

the ones who get screwed in all of it are the stores who lose the merchandise and never get paid for it from the credit card companies and because they don't have to pay the stores for purchases made with stolen cards the credit card companies have no real incentive to immediately prevent the card from being used again and in some cases they act as though that isn't their job.

this is a conversation I had last year when I got a call from visa that my card was being used in some little country next to or in Russia:
(I cant remember so i'll just call it Russia)

Me: no I haven't made any recent purchases in Russia, I live in the united states and only shop locally.

Them: well we see there are several large purchases made outside of your location in the united states and at the same time there are local charges being made on the card so we feel there is some illegal activity on your card.

Me: I live in the USA so that is not me making any charges in Russia because I cant be In two countries across the globe from each other at the same time, so my card info has definitely been stolen.

Them: "thank you, we will file an incident report and an investigator will contact you in a few days about the incident"

Me: ok, thank you for calling me and warning me about this theft. I assume this means my card has now been canceled and you are going to send me a new one?

Them: well no, that is not how we do it, we need to investigate the incident first and after the investigation has been completed and the investigator files his report, we will see what he recommends. if he feels it is warranted, then we "may" issue a new card to you.

Me: ok then just cancel my card and close my account effective immediately. after that there was a bunch of butt kissing trying to get me not to cancel the card but I told them "nicely" (because its not the worker on the phones who makes the rules) to "shove it"

had I used their "process" it would have taken at the very minimum 2-3 weeks to get around to canceling the card

im sure they react this way because people make false claims of stolen cards to try and avoid paying for legit purchases but they can better protect customers from real theft if they just give you a new card first, then do the investigating and put the charges back onto the new card if they are found to be legitimate charges. some card companies will do this but most don't.

[Onkel Neal]

Target: maybe now the US will switch over to a better credit card system (http://www.businessinsider.com/chip-and-pin-credit-card-changeover-in-2015-2014-2)? I was hearing on NPR how Europe has a superior card with a chip embedded that makes it very hard to hack. Anyone use one of these cards, maybe fill us backwater Americans in on how they work?

[Jimbuna]

Target: maybe now the US will switch over to a better credit card system (http://www.businessinsider.com/chip-and-pin-credit-card-changeover-in-2015-2014-2)? I was hearing on NPR how Europe has a superior card with a chip embedded that makes it very hard to hack. Anyone use one of these cards, maybe fill us backwater Americans in on how they work?

Explained here:

http://thepointsguy.com/2012/07/maximizing-smart-chip-credit-cards-in-europe/

The card I use:

http://help.barclaycard.co.uk/brochure/fraud_security/chip-and-pin-details

[vienna]

Jim, you forgot to include your card and pin numbers in your post... :D


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[Jimbuna]

I'll wait till the 16th...that's my monthly pension day :)