The Leon County Sheriff's office in conjunction with the United States Secret Service earlier this week announced the arrests of three area residents -- Tony Acreus, Jeremy Frazier and Timothy Johns -- for allegedly using stolen credit card numbers associated with the Heartland Payment Systems breach.
During this joint investigation, it was determined that Acreus, Frazier and Johns have been using stolen credit card numbers to electronically encode VISA Gift Cards which were then used to make fraudulent purchases at local businesses, including several Tallahassee Wal-Marts. The group would then sell the fraudulently obtained merchandise for cash.
The stolen credit card numbers utilized by the group were stolen in an international computer hijacking of records from the Heartland Processing Center in New Jersey. The total actual and declined fraudulent transaction in Leon County is currently in excess of $100,000. This amount is expected to be much higher as this investigation continues.
Heartland Payment Systems was hit by a massive data breach late last year. The breach led to the theft of more than 100 million credit and debit card accounts.
"This investigation is ongoing and will likely produce additional charges and additional arrests," Leon County Sherriff's officials said in announcing the arrests Tuesday.
I'm curious where the 'heartland' connection is coming from. I haven't found any credible source that states there is any connection between this arrest and the Heartland breach.
ReplyDeleteThe press release from the Leon County Sheriff's Office directly states the numbers being used by the suspects were part of breach. "The stolen credit card numbers utilized by the group were stolen in an international computer hijacking of records from the Heartland Processing Center in New Jersey."
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