Obtaining the data is sophisticated but perpetrating the actual theft was amateur night at the apollo. These guys established a common denominator by going to the same dollar stores and sticking out like sore thumbs by going in groups. Also going to every target on the east coast....what the story doesnt mention is that the fraud departments for card companies are sometimes ex fbi agents and other LE and along with sophisticated anti fraud soft ware, they look for patterns and can usually tell if the same person or group is doing the crime.
Back in the day they used to steal card numbers and punch the numbers on blank cards. It was obvious that the store accepting the card knew the cards were fake, they were blank. The secret service would lean on whomever made the sale and bamm!!!, the whole ring would go down. They then determined the card numbers came from 4 places, a hotel, a restaurant, a clothing store and somewhere else, i forgot. All the cards numbers that were compromised orininally made legit purchases at one of the 4 places..common denominator established and surveilence starts..you know the rest.