Department of Justice said 80,000 customer credit cards stolen; victims include Subway sub shops and 50 other merchants
The US Department of Justice said four Romanian nationals have between indicted for allegedly operating a massive, multimillion dollar point-of-sale hacking scheme.
According to the federal indictment, from approximately 2008 until May 2011, the four men conspired to remotely hack into more than 200 US-based merchants’ point-of-sale or “checkout” computer systems in order to steal customers’ credit, debit and gift card numbers.
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Merchant victims include more than 150 Subway restaurant franchises located throughout the US as well as more than 50 other retailers. According to the indictment, members of the conspiracy have compromised the credit card data of more than 80,000 customers, and millions of dollars of unauthorized purchases have been made using the compromised data, the DoJ stated.
The DoJ said the alleged scammers included: Adrian-Tiberiu Oprea, 27, of Constanta, Romania; Iulian Dolan, 27, of Craiova, Romania; Cezar Iulian Butu, 26, of Ploiesti, Romania; and Florin Radu, 23, of Rimnicu Vilcea, Romania. All have been charged in a four-count indictment filed in the District of New Hampshire with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, wire fraud and access device fraud. Oprea was arrested last week in Romania and is in custody. Dolan and Butu were arrested upon their entry into the United States on Aug. 13 and Aug. 14, 2011, respectively, and remain in custody. Radu remains at large.
Each defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison for each count if convicted of conspiracy to commit computer related fraud, 30 years in prison for each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five years in prison for each count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud. They also face fines up to twice the amount of the fraud loss and restitution.
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