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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hacker from Russia hit restaurants, feds charge

Associated Press

SEATTLE – A Russian man recently arrested on bank fraud and other charges hacked into computers at restaurants in Western Washington and North Idaho, hundreds of other retail businesses, and even the Phoenix Zoo, U.S. authorities allege.

Roman Valerevich Seleznev, 30, of Moscow, appeared in court in Guam on Monday and was ordered detained until a hearing July 22. He was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service over the weekend, according to federal court documents.

Seleznev, known by the underground name “Track2,” carried out a scheme to hack into retailers’ computers, install malicious software and steal credit card numbers from 2009 to 2011, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. He is accused of marketing and selling those stolen numbers on “criminally inspired websites.”

Seleznev is also accused of stealing credit card data from “hundreds of retail businesses” throughout the U.S. They include several others in Western Washington, along with Schlotzsky’s Deli in Coeur d’Alene; Mary’s Pizza Shack in Sonoma, California; and Latitude Bar and Grill in New York.

The indictment says Seleznev stole more than 200,000 credit card numbers and sold more than 140,000, generating more than $2 million in profits.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement Tuesday described Seleznev’s arrest as “yet another unfriendly gesture” of the United States.