The Justice Department of the United States of America announced today that they are opening a case against eleven people who are responsible for the theft, use, and selling of millions of credit card and debit card numbers which have resulted in millions of dollars of illegally purchased material.  Of the eleven individuals charged, three are from the United States, three are from Estonia, three reside in Ukraine, and two live in China.  There are other individuals whose identity remained obstructed at this time, although the Justice Department is working hard to track down these individuals.

The companies that were affected by these data breaches are numerous.  Many TJX Companies were targeted.  Businesses that fall into this sphere of influence include Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, Office Max, Sports Authority, and Barnes and Noble.  Another major company that was targeted was the Dave & Busters Adult Restaurant Chain.  In each instance, the information about credit card and debit card numbers were obtained through sniffer programs.  These programs collected the sensitive information and then transmitted it to secure servers which were located in specified areas controlled by the three criminals operating in the United States.  These three would then encrypt the information and send it to servers located in Eastern Europe, most likely in the Ukraine and Estonia.

The information was distributed in a variety of ways.  Sometimes, the information was simply sold to buyers on the internet.  This is a frequent way of distributing credit and debit card numbers and it is difficult to track down the original source of the breach.  In other instances, the identity thieves used blank credit cards and implanted the stolen account numbers onto them.  Then they were able to go to an ATM machine and withdraw thousands of dollars at a single time.  It was this type of large scale withdrawals that first attracted the attention of the government.  They have been conducting this operation for 2.5 years and had someone working on the inside.

There is no word yet on what type of charges the individuals will be facing.  This is the largest effort made by the federal government and while no punishments have been suggested yet, industry experts are saying that those prosecuted in American courtrooms will face over 70 years in jail and those in other countries might suffer the death penalty.

Identity theft is a serious crime that has long term repercussions.  Not only does it immediately affect an individual, but the damage done to someone’s credit report can prevent them from getting a house, car, or sometimes even a job in a future.  For those who want to take a proactive stance, there are ID theft subscription services available.  These companies, such as Lifelock, provide credit monitoring at all three bureaus.  Whenever a credit card application is filed or a new loan application submitted, Lifelock contacts its customer.  It verifies the validity of the request and prevents it from being processed if it is fraudulent.