Back in January, postal inspectors discovered a scheme to duplicate the credit cards of Target customers and rack up purchases on counterfeit cards. No… we don’t mean that Target credit card breach. So far, this appears to be a much smaller breach, though authorities can’t say for sure yet that it’s not at all related to the breach that shook up the retail business and all of our wallets earlier this year.

What we know so far is that postal inspectors have been investigating this situation since January (warning: auto-play video at that link) and in April, they apprehended the man who was allegedly behind the scheme. He told investigators that he used his computer science training to figure out the card number sequence that Target uses for its store cards, and used that information to make counterfeit cards. These cards were then used to buy about $200,000 worth of merchandise from Target stores.

In a statement, Target told local radio station KFBK that they don’t think the thefts are related to a breach of the point-of-sale systems, which is what happened in late 2013.

It’s important to note that there is absolutely no indication that this situation is in any way related to a breach of Target’s networks or point-of-sale systems.

Information protection is a top priority at Target and our investigations team has partnered with local California law enforcement and the local office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to bring charges against this individual that we believe has engaged in physical credit card fraud.

Because this is part of an ongoing investigation, any additional questions should be directed to the local law enforcement.

Central Valley Target Customers May Be Victims of Data Theft [KFBK]
Central Valley Target stores hit with credit card security breach [KXTV] (Warning: auto-play video)

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