Eastern European criminal gangs are already the scourge of UK retailers because of their prolific shoplifting activity.

Now news coming out of the States suggests that it was also Eastern Europeans behind the payment card data breaches that affected TK Maxx parent TJX.

An indictment by a federal grand jury in Boston has reportedly seen charges brought against one Estonian, three Ukrainians, two Chinese, a Belorussian and three Americans.

In this case, the charges relate to hacking into wireless networks, something that requires a hacker to be physically present at a retailer’s site in order to gain access to a corporate network.

However, once a hacker has breached a retailer’s network it is possible for them to plant spyware, which will then send data back to hackers across an internet connection – in just the same way as consumers’ private data can be compromised if they are tricked into downloading spyware to a home computer.

In the UK, consumers are better protected from these kinds of attacks because of the implementation of Chip & PIN, which has closed down some avenues for fraudsters to use stolen payment card data.

But any feeling of relative safety is based on the assumption that fraudsters only use card data in its country of origin. In the case of the latest anecdote I’ve heard about a cloned UK bank card, the fraud actually took place in Benin, West Africa.

In fact, payment association Apacs blamed the rise in card fraud last year on the 77 per cent rise in fraud committed overseas by criminals using stolen UK card details totaling£90.5 million.

Hackers don’t just use the card data they steal to commit fraud themselves, they also sell it on the internet; to anyone, anywhere in the world who thinks that they can make use of it.

It is almost certain that retailers are being targeted by hacking attacks in the UK too and they are going unreported, perhaps because retailers do not even realise that data has been compromised.

While the cost of this fraud may not be directly falling to UK retailers, there is no doubt that indirectly UK banks will look to offset their losses.

Retailers should be aware that the threat from foreign gangs is not just physical but a virtual one too.