A New York City man was charged with felony identity theft last week at the Columbia County Jail upon his release by the Claverack Town Court on a similar charge.
State Police charged Sekhou Toure, 27, with first degree identity theft.
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With the assistance of area banks and credit unions it was determined that the Smokers Choice cigarette store in Greenport’s Fairview Plaza was a common denominator in the investigation.
Smokers Choice information technology specialists were already looking into the problem and fully cooperated.
State Police investigators from Troop F in Middletown secured Smokers Choice computers from their HQ’s in Orange County. They were subsequently examined by the State Police Computer Crimes specialists at the Crime Lab in Albany where it was determined they were compromised by hackers located inRussia. Toure’s connection is still under investigation.
Read more on North Country Gazette. Note that this is a different Smokers Choice incident than one reported on this blog in 2009.