Gainesville (FL) - Florida police have arrested six people suspected of buying up millions of dollars in game consoles, computers and television sets with stolen financial information from TJX. TJX, which include brand name stores like TJ Maxx, announced in January that its computers systems had been hacked and that thousands of customer records had been accessed. Now police believe that information was used to buy gift cards which were then used to purchase high-tech merchandise.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement along with the Gainesville Police Department arrested six out of ten suspects after discovering that they had bought millions of dollars in Walmart and Sam’s Club gift cards. The gift cards were then turned around and either sold to other suspects or used to purchase high-ticket items. Total losses for TJX could total more than $8 million dollars.

Shouldn’t the use of millions of dollars in gift cards been caught earlier ? Well it seems the suspects used an interesting loophole within Walmart’s system. Multiple gift cards of $400 dollars were purchased and used to buy items because Walmart only requires a picture identification when using gift cards that are $500 or more.

The police initially notified TJX of the activity back in November 2006, but the company waited until January to announced the data breach. One large shareholder is now suing TJX and alleges that it botched the investigation and didn’t inform stockholders in a timely manner.

The suspects range from 18 to 40 years old and are being held on one million dollars bail each.