McAllen, Texas, police have arrested two people from Monterrey, Mexico, that the local cops say were in possession of fake credit cards made with information obtained from the Target data breach.
However, a federal government source familiar with the U.S. Secret Service's investigation into the Target breach says the arrests are not connected to the broader Target case. "I'm not sure where the local police got that information," the source told PaymentsSource on Jan 21. A phone number for the McAllen police answered with an automated message saying the line is busy on the morning of Jan. 21.
McAllen police arrested Mary Carmen Garcia and Daniel Dominguez, who were allegedly caught with 96 fake cards as they attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico on Jan 20, a local CBS news outlet reported.
The McAllen police told the local CBS affiliate that the suspects are part of a group that bought accounts hacked during the Target breach, then manufactured fake cards to make purchases across the border in the U.S. The cards that the suspects held at the time of the arrest were not used, but the two suspects are accused of using dozens of credit cards last week at Best Buy, Toys R Us and other retailers. Each of these purchases were connected to hacked accounts, the local police told the CBS affiliate.
The Secret Service confirmed it was investigating data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus, though it would not comment further, saying the investigations are ongoing.
The Target breach, took place during the 2013 holiday shopping season, affecting the card data of 40 million people and the personal contact information of 70 million.
The Target and Neiman Marcus breaches were executed using BlackPOS, a type of malware created by a Russian-based hacker in March of 2013, according to IntelCrawler, a Los Angeles-based security company.
