TJX Companies, the parent company of TJ Maxx, told the Boston Globe that its costs for the largest data breach in corporate history have reached $256 million. The costs include fixing the company’s computer system, dealing with lawsuits and investigations, and other claims stemming from the theft.

Data thieves broke into TJX’s computer system and stole credit and debit card numbers for more than 45 million customers. Authorities say some of the numbers have been used to make fake credit cards that have been used to buy expensive electronics from Wal-Mart and other retailers.

Three months ago, the retailer estimated the damage to amount to only $25 million. Several analysts say TJX’s costs could run as high as $1 billion.

An Oregon woman won $1 million on a scratch-and-win lottery ticket. Too bad she bought the ticket with a stolen credit card. A Jackson County judge recently ruled Christina Goodenow’s winnings were the proceeds of illegal activity and must be forfeited under Oregon law.

The Seattle Times reported Goodenow had asked lottery officials to keep her win quiet, claiming she was a victim of domestic abuse. Goodenow bought the ticket with a credit card belonging to her boyfriend’s dead mother in 2005. Police learned of her crime two weeks later as she continued to use the stolen credit card. Oregon had already paid Goodenow $33,500 which she has mostly spent.

Although Goodenow pled no contest to forgery, cheating, and aggravated theft, she maintains she bought the winning ticket with cash from her own pocket.

Approximately 99,000 of the Misused Records Contained Credit Card Information

It seems  you can't go a day anymore without hearing about some sort of data security breach. With that said, Fidelity recently announced a data security breach that could adequately be described as "the granddaddy of them all" (as ABC Sports Commentator Keith Jackson used to so beautifully portray The Rose Bowl).

In a July 3rd press release, Fidelity announced that a senior database administrator for Certegy (a division of Fidelity National Information Services, Inc.) stole and sold approximately 2.3 million consumer records including personal information like names, addresses, telephone numbers and even bank accounts in most of the cases. The consumer records were apparently sold to a data broker, who then turned around and sold some of the records to direct marketing organizations. Certegy's President Renz Nichols said that there is no reason to think that the theft resulted in any fraudulent activity or damage to the consumer, but have fun trying to tell that to those consumers who must now be even more conscientious of identity theft.

The press release added that Certegy would personally notify all affected consumers; a process that is sure to take some time with more than 2 million people affected. The company is also taking immediate action to create fraud watch procedures for financial institutions, leaving many to wonder why such procedures weren't taken before this crisis!

Although clearly only part of the story, USA Today reports on a modern day money laundering scheme following some of the data stolen from TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and other discount clothing stores.

The newspaper’s story follows Irving Escobar crisscrossing Florida using counterfeit credit cards to buy stacks of $400 Wal-Mart gift cards, then using them to purchase televisions, computers, and jewelry from Wal-Mart and Sam’s Clubs stores.

Like many corporations that maintain customer’s records, TJX was the victim of identity theft, losing credit card data for over 45 million customers since 2005. Customer data was then used to counterfeit credit cards using a false name on the front, while the data strip on the back contained all the data needed to charge the cards.

Escobar hired several “employees” to use the bogus cards to buy gift cards and use the cards at different stores around Florida. On one day, three members of the group went to two Wal-Marts in Gainesville. They went to more than 30 checkout counters and purchased $42,000 in gift cards. A week later, Bank of America informed Marsha Carney that her Visa card number was used to buy the gift cards in 60 different transactions.

According to USA Today, for the most part, consumers have not been liable for the bogus TJX charges.

A new scam has been developed to steal identities from military families. According to InformationWeek, a thief will call a soldier’s family claiming to be from the Red Cross. The thief will claim the soldier has been injured and has been evacuated to Germany and the medical unit cannot start treatment until the soldier’s paperwork is complete. To complete the paperwork, the supposed Red Cross representative needs to verify the soldier’s Social Security number and date of birth.

The Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Crystal has issued a warning that its representatives never contact military families directly. The Red Cross urged family members to not give out any personal information to anyone they don’t know.

If you believe you’ve been a victim of identity theft, you should contact a lawyer.

To help prevent identity theft, Maricopa County, Arizona has hired a company to pore through 90 million images of divorce decrees, tax liens, child-support judgments, deeds of trust, foreclosure filings, and dozens of other types of public documents and black out Social Security numbers.

Arizona leads the nation in identity theft and the Phoenix metro area (Maricopa County) leads Arizona.

Maricopa County officials are attempting to remove documents from the internet and removing Social Security number from images remaining on the net.

A personal security and identity theft expert recently demonstrated how file-sharing programs can make your hard drive viewable to online thieves. While Internet Explorer offers some protection against identity thieves, peer-to-peer networks do not necessarily protect your data.

Peer-to-peer networks do not work through Internet Explorer. They are stand-alone programs, requiring their own security. Sensitive data may be protected by running security programs, such as those available from Zone-Labs or Norton.

Two Romanian men were indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for running an identity theft scam using ATM machines. Vasile Ciocan and Romulus Pasca are charged with conspiracy, fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

The two suspects allegedly attached card readers to ATM machines. They used to information gathered by their illicit devices to make phony ATM cards. The cards were then used to withdraw money from ATM machines. The suspects were caught after police were tipped to suspicious activity around ATMs in Pittsburgh.

Police warned people to keep track of their credit card and bank accounts.

A drug raid in Lexington County, South Carolina turned up a major identity theft ring. While seizing 11 pounds of cocaine, authorities discovered a counterfeiting operation. The identity theft ring was making counterfeit social security cards based on stolen social security numbers.

While authorities did not indicate what the ring did with the cards, most likely, they were used as false identification for illegal immigrants seeking work in the United States.

Sid Kirchheimer, who writes the Scam-Alert column for the AARP Bulletin, offered tips on the Today Show on how to scam proof your death. Kirchheimer said identity thieves look through obituaries for names and addresses of people who have recently passed on, then they buy their Social Security numbers on the internet.

Jay Foley of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, California said about 400,000 checking accounts were opened in the names of deceased people in 2004.