Biggest ID Fraud Case Cracked

Over 13% of US’s population credit and debit card numbers were in the hands of 11 people that authorities charged, in the country’s largest-ever identity theft case. More than 41 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hacking into the computer systems of major US retailers and installing software in order to access account details and passwords, BBC reports.

Out of the 11 suspects, only three are US citizens. Three others are from Ukraine, two from China, one from Estonia and one from Belarus. The suspects are alleged to have obtained the data by driving around neighbourhoods and hacking into wireless equipment. The information they concealed is said to be have been stored on servers both in the US and Europe.

The Department of Justice claims “widespread” losses among banks and retailers, but no precise financial damage was mentioned. TJX, owner of TJ Maxx and Marshall chains, suffered the biggest losses, with data from 45.7 million credit cards stolen from the company’s computers.

The hackers are also suspected to have encoded stolen numbers on magnetic strips of credit and debit cards, used to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from ATM machines, Boston Globe reports.

The total amount of stolen money since the initial breach is 2005 is uncertain at the moment, but authorities claim that it is the order of “tens of millions of dollars”. For this investigation, law enforcement agencies from around the world cooperated, including Turkey and Germany. Identity fraud is costing the US billions of dollars every year.