Target, Security Breaches and Accountability

It was 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, but Mary Carmen Garcia (27) and Daniel Guardiola Dominquez (28) were not headed for church.  Instead, their white Nissan Sentra pulled up to the border patrol station at Anzalduas International Bridge near McAllen, Texas.  Alerted by outstanding warrants issued by the McAllen Police Department, Customs and Border Protection officers arrested the couple.  Hidden within their clothing were more than 100 cloned credit cards.

Garcia and Dominquez had done this before and since criminals are seldom smart, they couldn’t wait to come back for a second (third, fourth…) bite at the apple.  Their 100 fake credit cards had already gotten tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise at the usual list of big box stores, including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Toys R Us.  [A store I refuse to shop at because its name should be Toys R We.   They can’t get the grammar right, let alone that damn, “R”]

            The McAllen Police began working with the Secret Service after a number of merchants were hit with fraudulent purchases on January 12.  The Secret Service confirmed that the account information traced back to the Target security breach in December.  After viewing what was described as, “miles of security video” the couple, their car and address in Monterrey, Mexico were identified.  It was quickly determined that they had nothing to do with the original hack—trust me, these two are a couple of 60 watt bulbs.  So were do two intestinal worms acquire 100 credit cards?   

            The answer to that questions is, “Every where.”  Gang members buy them off the streets.  White-collar scum buys them on the internet.  As one investigator said, “In reality, card numbers can be bought by anybody with access to the forums and a few Bitcoins in their pocket.”   Since using the cards is the riskiest part of the venture, that work is farmed out to the more oafish members of the criminal cabal.  These fools are recruited with the usual promise of lazy, quick cash.  Garcia and Dominquez were probably supplied with the cards, told to spend like sailors on short leave and give the supplier a percentage of the profits.  Mr. Big doesn’t get caught, but he does get rich.  

            Today word broke that a western Pennsylvania HVAC contractor for Target is probably the weak spot in the wall that the hacking rats gnawed through.   The hackers, themselves, are probably Russians.  But I have another issue with this story.

I have researched this article on six different news outlets (about average for a blog).   On only one, The Monitor, of McAllen, Texas, did the important fact appear that at each store, the criminals used as many as a dozen different cards, one after another being declined, before they got one to run without a. “flag.”  Why didn’t the store clerk become suspicious?  As the police chief said, “If you have a customer that…goes through a dozen [cards]…you should call someone.”

 Doesn’t this make sense?  Are their no policies in place to protect the store, the consumer and the clerk?  Why would a store allow this credit card bingo?  Is it because the store is counting on the credit card company to make up the loss? 

            I have a suggestion.   Why not make stores accountable for a third of the loss on a fraudulently purchased item if one credit card is denied, two thirds if two cards are denied and the whole amount if three are denied?  That would make the seller, as well as the buyer beware. 

            Keep everyone accountable and keep the faith.