By Charles Levinson and Paul Ziobro
The Secret Service said Tuesday it is working with McAllen,
Texas, police to determine if recent arrests in a credit card fraud
case have any link to the massive breach over the holidays at
Target Corp.
The comments follow conflicting comments from McAllen Police
Chief Victor Rodriguez, who said at a news conference Monday that
the events were linked, and a federal official who said no
connection had been established.
"The Secret Service is working with the U.S. Attorney's Office
and McAllen Police Department to determine if there is any
connection," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in an
email.
A Target spokeswoman declined late Monday to comment on the
arrests.
At issue is the arrest of Mary Carmen Garcia Vaquera, 27, and
Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, 28, both of Monterrey, Mexico, who were
taken into custody by McAllen police and charged with fraud. Mr.
Rodriguez said at the news conference Monday the pair used stolen
credit card data to make tens of thousands of dollars of fraudulent
purchases at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and other retailers in South
Texas.
Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said Tuesday the company
had no information to share at this time. The other retailers
didn't reply to requests for comment Monday night.
Tuesday morning, Mr. Rodriguez said in an email that Secret
Service field agents had told him fraudulent purchases made last
week were linked to accounts from the breach.
Target has said it was the victim of an attack that began Nov.
27 and ran to Dec. 15, causing 40 million credit and debit card
accounts to be compromised over the busy holiday season.
McAllen police first started to see the fraudulent purchases a
week ago and identified Mr. Dominguez and Ms. Garcia after
examining surveillance video from local merchants, Mr. Rodriguez
said.
Write to Charles Levinson at Chalres.Levinson@wsj.com
Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com
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