A US man has admitted trafficking hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers that resulted in the loss of more than $36 million.
In court filings, Rogelio Hackett says that since at least 2002 he has been hacking into business computer networks and downloading credit card databases as well as buying information from other crooks through online carding forums.
He also admits selling information, manufacturing and selling counterfeit cards, and buying gift cards and merchandise with stolen data.
Charging between $20 and $25 a stolen number, authorities say Hackett made between $200 and $800 a month through the carding forums. In total he received more than $70,000 selling stolen information and another $80,000 by using data to buy fraudulent Western Union orders.
He was caught after selling 40 counterfeit cards to an undercover Secret Service agent. When agents executed a search warrant in 2009 at his home they found more than 675,000 stolen numbers and related information in his computers and e-mail accounts.
Card companies have identified tens of thousands of fraudulent transactions using the numbers found in his possession, totalling more than $36 million.
At sentencing, scheduled for July, Hackett faces maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss, on the access device fraud charge, and another two years and a $250,000 fine on the identity theft charge.