MIAMI — Police have charged six people with stealing credit card numbers from a TJX Cos. database to buy about US$1 million in merchandise with gift cards, authorities said Friday.

TJX is the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and other chains, including Winners and HomeSense in Canada.

The company reported last year that hackers had gotten into a credit card database and many numbers had been stolen, Gainesville police Sgt. Ray Barber said. No Canadian debit-card transactions were affected.

The six people were arrested in Miami on March 8 and charged with one felony count each of conducting an organized scheme to defraud, while four others remain at large, Barber said.

In November, Gainesville police launched an investigation after two local Wal-Mart stores reported two gift card purchases of $18,000 and $24,000, Barber said.

The gift cards were bought from Wal-Mart stores throughout northern Florida and used in Miami to acquire large quantities of electronics and jewelry at Sam's Club stores, Barber said.

"They estimate the loss from that hack job to be around $8 million," Barber said. "We have only identified up to a million from our case."

Framingham, Mass.-based TJX is co-operating with law enforcement, said Sherry Lang, senior vice president for investor and public relations.

"We are hopeful that our continued cooperation with law enforcement will lead to the criminals who perpetrated the crimes against TJX and its customers being brought to justice," Lang said in an e-mail.