New York authorities have charged six people accused of being part of an international criminal gang which used stolen card data to buy thousands of event tickets through eBay-owned StubHub.
According to the indictment, the gang accessed more than 1600 StubHub accounts, bought 3500 tickets to events such as Elton John and Jay-Z concerts and New York Yankees baseball games, and sold them on, defrauding the firm out of around $1 million.
After obtaining logins and passwords, the crooks first gained access to around 1000 StubHub accounts last March, using the pre-existing card information to buy tickets.
When StubHub found that it had been targeted and beefed up security protocols, the gang simply started using new credit card information stolen from additional victims, instead of the pre-existing payments data.
The tickets were then sold on in New York and New Jersey, with profits divided up and funnelled through various PayPal and bank accounts in the UK and Germany.
New York authorities have indicted six men charged with money-laundering, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and identity theft. City of London Police arrested three individuals on money laundering offences, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also picked up one man.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance says: "Cybercriminals know no boundaries - they do not respect international borders or laws. Today's arrests and indictment connect a global network of hackers, identity thieves, and money-launderers who victimized countless individuals in New York and elsewhere."
Earlier this year, StubHub owner eBay was forced to ask customers to change their passwords because of a cyber-attack that compromised a database containing user data.