Australia probes theft of 500,000 credit card numbers
Posted on August 18, 2012, Saturday
SYDNEY: Australian police said yesterday they were investigating the theft of some 500,000 credit card numbers which resulted in A$25 million worth of fraudulent transactions.
Authorities were unable to say whether the investigation was confined to Australia but noted that “the borderless nature of this crime type poses new and unique challenges for law enforcement”.
“The Australian Federal Police can confirm it is currently investigating a series of merchants whose individual computer systems have been compromised,” a spokeswoman said.
“The compromise is believed to have involved approximately 500,000 credit cards and resulted in more than US$25 million in fraudulent transactions.”
Reports said eastern European hackers were responsible, although police did not confirm this, only saying that international and private sector cooperation was critical to its ability to target this type of fraud. — AFP
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