tag:consumerist.com,2010:/1/tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010- 2010-01-24T13:30:05Z Comments for Three Men Arrested In Heartland Data Breach For Using Fake Visa Gift Cards Shoppers bite back. Movable Type 4.32-en tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010 2009-02-16T03:14:04Z 2009-02-16T04:25:21Z Three Men Arrested In Heartland Data Breach For Using Fake Visa Gift Cards -->The U.S. Secret Service has arrested three men in Florida on "hundreds of counts of credit card fraud" for using fake gift cards imprinted with account info stolen from Heartland Payment Systems last year. The Secret Service still thinks an Eastern European group is behind the Heartland breach, and that the Florida guys are smaller-time crooks who most likely purchased a subset of the stolen data. Chris Walters The U.S. Secret Service has arrested three men in Florida on "hundreds of counts of credit card fraud" for using fake gift cards imprinted with account info stolen from Heartland Payment Systems last year. The Secret Service still thinks an Eastern European group is behind the Heartland breach, and that the Florida guys are smaller-time crooks who most likely purchased a subset of the stolen data.

]]> One thing that's new about the case is the use of Visa gift cards—they're easy to shoplift, and then the stolen account info can be encoded onto the magnetic strip on the back. It's also harder to catch fraudulent use via gift card, and there are fewer ID restrictions. The men were caught because they used the stolen data for too long and it began to go bad—near the end, Walmart's system was catching and flagging accounts that had already been deactivated, which was what alerted them to the fraud.

"First Heartland Arrests, With New Twist To Bogus Gift Card Scheme" [StorefrontBacktalk]
(Photo: ToOb)

]]> tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10804885 Comment from Odaecom on 2009-02-18 Odaecom Just got a replacement debit card from my credit union, they cited the Heartland data breach as why they replaced it.

]]> 2009-02-18T05:06:06Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10800721 Comment from ScottRose on 2009-02-17 ScottRose http://www.mintred.com @Ronin-Democrat:

wipe the card down before you throw it away.

Burn it. Always burn evidence. It's more fun.

]]> 2009-02-18T02:27:29Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10800700 Comment from ScottRose on 2009-02-17 ScottRose http://www.mintred.com @MikeF74:

You were sleep-shopping again.

]]> 2009-02-18T02:26:32Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10800673 Comment from ScottRose on 2009-02-17 ScottRose http://www.mintred.com @Gstein: Ugh, I was just coming down here to make such a comment. Touche.

@SpiderPaintingDollarz: <-- What he said, but with "lose".

]]> 2009-02-18T02:25:48Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10773961 Comment from audemars on 2009-02-16 audemars @Ronin-Democrat: Thanks!

]]> 2009-02-17T00:03:41Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10766083 Comment from Ronin-Democrat on 2009-02-16 Ronin-Democrat OK crims what you do is, go in as a pair and pretend that one of you gave the other the card as a birthday or work reward gift. Buy big and get the f out of dodge.
Leave a bit of cash on the card and drop it 3 months later where some doofus will find it and use it thereby taking the scent off of you because the video will have been wiped clean from your victim's security system.
God criminals are stupid.
PS
wipe the card down before you throw it away. finger prints are how the secret service convict money counterfeiters

]]> 2009-02-16T14:44:36Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10764967 Comment from SpiderPaintingDollarz cleaned his room on 2009-02-16 SpiderPaintingDollarz cleaned his room @Gstein: Within the next few days, thay'll screw it up. They'll probably loose the card processing data before the Secret Service can get to it.

]]> 2009-02-16T11:00:30Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10763695 Comment from Blueskylaw on 2009-02-16 Blueskylaw @MikeF74:

It's actually from retroactive account inactivity fees, from sitting too long on the shelf before it was sold.

]]> 2009-02-16T08:47:34Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10760794 Comment from MikeF74 on 2009-02-16 MikeF74 This must be why a $50 Babies-R-Us gift card we received in September had a zero balance when we tried to use it.

]]> 2009-02-16T05:21:56Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10760637 Comment from OggJoshua on 2009-02-16 OggJoshua The Eastern Europeans merely have an improper subset of the stolen data!

]]> 2009-02-16T05:12:56Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10760253 Comment from gStein_*|bringing starpipe back|* on 2009-02-15 gStein_*|bringing starpipe back|* n/a walmart win?
i think this has got to be a first.

]]> 2009-02-16T04:52:40Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10759908 Comment from Slow2Whine on 2009-02-15 Slow2Whine @aguacarbonica: Actually, I remembered reading an article from January 09 Wired magazine about a busted CC fraud ring. This guy had actually had set up a site where you could buy all sorts of stuff related to ID theft.

I'm thinking that they criminal buyers probably didn't know that the account info was old enough to be flagged, and probably bought it cheap or got duped into paying for something they thought was acquired recently.

]]> 2009-02-16T04:32:27Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10759646 Comment from aguacarbonica on 2009-02-15 aguacarbonica Why are criminals not more paranoid? I don't understand how they go about using all this stolen crap and not feeling remotely concerned after months that they are going to be tracked down. Maybe they don't get the technology.

]]> 2009-02-16T04:13:15Z tag:64.14.177.195,2009://1.5154010-comment:10759366 Comment from Warll on 2009-02-15 Warll http://www.warll.com Ah so thats why...

]]> 2009-02-16T03:53:27Z