US security forces have arrested a Russian national on the charges of hacking retailers and stealing credit card information throughout the country.
Roman Valerevich Seleznev (30), of Moscow, also known as “Track2”, was indicted in March 2011 for operating several carding forums that engaged in the distribution of stolen credit card information.
He was arrested over the weekend and transported to Guam for an initial court appearance yesterday, the Department of Justice said.
At his first appearance in Guam, the court ordered that he will be held in custody pending a further hearing scheduled for July 22.
The indictment unsealed yesterday details a bank fraud scheme in which Seleznev is charged with hacking into retail point of sale systems and installing malicious software on the systems to steal credit card numbers.
The indictment alleges that Seleznev created and operated infrastructure to facilitate the theft and sales of credit card data and used servers located all over the world to facilitate the operation.
This infrastructure included servers that hosted carding forum websites where cybercriminals gathered to sell stolen credit card numbers, the Justice Department said.
The charges in the indictment include five counts of bank fraud, eight counts of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer, eight counts of obtaining information from a protected computer, one count of possession of fifteen or more unauthorised access devices (stolen credit card numbers), two counts of trafficking in unauthorised access devices and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
“Cyber crooks should take heed: you cannot hide behind distant keyboards,” said US Attorney Jenny A Durkan, who leads the Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.