Hacker Chirag Patel sentenced to 51 months in prison

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Chirag Patel, 38, most recently of Norfolk, Virginia, was sentenced on May 8, 2023, by United States District Judge G. Murray Snow to 51 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

According to a May 22, 2023 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, Patel was also ordered to pay $87,522.25 in restitution. Patel pleaded guilty to Computer Fraud.

Between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel hacked into the Phoenix-based computers of an international hospitality company on numerous occasions.

He fraudulently transferred and redeemed customer reward points from the company’s customer loyalty program, the press release said, adding that he also stole credit card numbers and other personally identifying information (PII) from customers and loyalty program members, which were stored in the company’s computers.

Patel took screenshots of customers’ and members’ information, which included credit card numbers and other PII, and saved the screenshots to a Google Drive he controlled.

In total, between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel stole and possessed more than 1,200 credit card numbers.

He used some of the stolen credit card numbers to make unauthorized purchases and also tried to sell some of the stolen credit card numbers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation in this case. The United States Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, National Security Section, Phoenix, handled the prosecution.