Another data leak in China is embedded in this news report in The China Post:
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday nabbed the leader of a group of credit card criminals in Taoyuan County who profited through cheaply selling off illegally purchased concert tickets.
A man surnamed Lin began shopping online with embezzled credit cards in early 2011. After being busted by the police in April that year, Lin adjusted his criminal strategies.
Lin obtained credit card numbers and identify information of the cardholders from a television shopping channel leak to purchase concert tickets of famous singers, including Leehom Wang, Jay Chou, Eason Chen, K-Friends, Luo Da-yu (羅大佑) and Wu Bai & China Blue.
Lin would then order his accomplices, two men surnamed Chang and Chen, to pick up the tickets at 7-11 or Family Mart stores and sell them online at various auction platforms, under the following accounts: apple_ostin, lm_apple, mm_skyapple, for less than half of the tickets’ original prices. Chang and Chen would meet with buyers to deliver the tickets at a price of around NT$1,000 each.
As cardholders generally report the illegal transactions, causing the purchased tickets to become invalid, ticket holders would be denied entrance at concerts. In essence, the only party that actually profited from these deals is Lin and his accomplices. Victims even included officers from the CIB, the bureau admitted.
In late October, the CIB sent undercover officers to purchase tickets from Lin, and captured Chang and Chen when the two were about to hand off the purchased tickets. Cooperating with Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office, the CIB finally tracked down and captured Lin yesterday, discovering over 10,000 cardholders’ personal information and credit card numbers. The number of victims is estimated at several hundred, the CIB said.
So what was the shopping channel that had this data leak? Anyone know?