A record 2,322 scams in Japan to steal internet banking IDs and passwords have resulted in unauthorized money transfers totaling a record of around 3 billion yen ($21 million) in the first half of this year, a report by the National Police Agency showed Tuesday.
The number of cases mainly involving phishing this year has already surpassed the annual total of any previous year, with the financial loss approaching the record high of 3.07 billion yen set in 2015, according to the agency.
The agency attributes the surge in cases to expanding internet banking and increasingly sophisticated phishing emails. Financial institutions, particularly those without physical branches, were hit especially hard in the first half of this year.
Phishing emails and text messages typically impersonate financial institutions and redirect users to counterfeit websites, ostensibly to address urgent matters. These messages often prompt potential victims to input their passwords and other personal information.
Criminal groups are believed to use ill-gotten personal information to transfer funds from users' accounts to their accounts.
A 40-year-old Indonesian man was arrested in July by Indonesian police for illegally using the credit card information of a Japanese individual stolen through phishing, the agency separately said.
This marks the first arrest of an overseas suspect resulting from cross-border collaborations between the agency's National Cyber Unit, established in April 2022, and foreign authorities, according to the agency.
With Japan seeing a sharp rise in phishing scams, police have advised against clicking on links in suspicious emails and only entering sensitive information on official websites or apps.
In July, the agency also requested financial institutions via the Japanese Bankers Association to enhance their security measures.
© KYODO
18 Comments
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sakurasuki
That just saying please cooperate and spend your company profit for this matters.
While doing nothing that really matters and just keep busy checking for bicycle license registration on the street.
Eastman
few simple steps to avoid to get scammed or at least to reduce risk of it.
-always check email of sender.if pretends to be from dhl domain should be dhl.com and not some kind of gmail etc
-never give remote access to your computer via anydesk etc/once you do other side will change your password they will lock your computer will steal all of your data
-never talk over phone about internet banking with unknown person.if have any issues with bank account or internet banking contact bank directly and not some "agencies"
-use good antivirus programs say avast or anything,better invest some money in won security than get scammed and hacked
-if you come to point to some payment for any "goods for sale" offered at incredibly low prices/say Iphone for 30% of price or standard price/ once you get asked for it by giftcard this should be no-go-zone for you.google for giftcard scam script,there are a lot of info available online
-stay smart and use your common sense.dont be greedy.cheap things comes sometimes at incredibly high costs
koiwaicoffee
If someone steals a banana from a konbini you have the whole ward police investigating the case. But the internet seems to be in another dimension for them, it's like explaining a caveman what a fax is.
Japan is a paradox
Curiously all of these scammers are operating in Japan since Japanese is not spoken anywhere else, whereas most scammers operating in English-language nations are located in developing nations such as India and South East Asia.
What does that tell you about the nature of scammers - an Asian-based crime?
garypen
I've found the JP phishing emails to be even less convincing than their Western counterparts. Truly easy to spot. Especially the SMS/Text messages with links, which one should never click. Ever.
I think one of the problems in Japan, is that many people are new to the technology. And, thus, assume everything they see on the Net is legitimate. They don't know what to look for. (TBF, the same is true for many people in the West, especially the seniors.)
They can also be too trusting. The almost unbelievable success of phone scams here is testament to that.
I've noticed that banks and e-tailers are sending out lots of emails lately warning about these scams, and how to avoid falling victim. So, that should at least help a little.
garypen
Right? Nobody speaks the Japanese language other than Japanese people who are living Japan. Oh wait.
(Plus, that crazy little thing called Google Translate.)
Wesley
Lots of prc criminals come here disguised as "students" and study computer science at local universities.
Just saying.
Wesley
Here's a tip:
Link your credit cards to a smaller account with just enough money to pay for bills, groceries, etc. This way, if anything happens, only a small amount is gone.
Keep your main savings account SEPARATE ( eg, if your employer credits your salary directly into your bank account).
Rhaegar
Simple lesson.
I treat all emails as fake, never click any links.
If I am curious or want to find out more I log onto the official website directly on a PC, via a dedicated browser that I only ever use for banking/finance....
I feel for the older folks who don't really understand the dangers... the police/media here put a lot of effort in making people aware of the fake phone callers that prey on older folks but not much is done to inform about email based communication. I've drilled this into my parents/grandparents... but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that don't have anyone to warn them.
Legrande
If you go with internet banking, be prepared to deal with all that comes with it.
Safe alternative: simply forego internet banking.
wallace
There are several layers of protection with internet banking.
garypen
Nah. Not worth the trouble to open another account just for that. Plus, a lot of people, such as my wife and I, charge more than just those basics. So, we would also be transferring money all the time based on the totals from the different cards and ETC, etc.
Credit card account holders are protected against fraudulent charges. You generally have a month or more before the card companies hit your bank account. Plenty of time to spot fraudulent charges before then.
Just set your credit card account to send you an alert whenever there is a charge. If that would be too many alerts, you can set a specific threshold, so you get an alert for transactions over a certain amount, such as ¥5,000 or ¥10,000.
Mark
Why can't internet providers and cell phone companies work with the police on identifying and blocking these accounts and phone numbers including their IP address!? what is so hard about pulling the plug on these scammers? I just don't get it.
When people report a scam the authorities in charge should investigate and be able to block that IP address or phone number within hours. we can do it with our own phones so why cant the police do it for the public?
garypen
I just received an email from the Japan Immigration Service. So, it would seem that scammers are targeting foreigners here, as well.
There goes the theory someone posted above that only Japanese are victims and only Japanese are doing the scamming.
Strangerland
Both phone numbers and IP addresses are easily masked, and with the absolute flood of incidents it’s impossible to trace much of any of them, much less all.
Japan is a paradox
Gary, sorry if this is inappropriate, but my curiosity got the better of me; are you THE Gary Pen of Zzap64 fame in the 80's and 90's?
Japan is a paradox
Pretty sure outside of Japan you don't have a choice.
Japan is a paradox
So you're saying, and Indian guy in India (for arguments sake) who already speaks, reads and writes English fairly fluently (like most people in India) an has a target audiences of many millions and systems already set up in English, he's going to go to all the trouble of learning some Japanese which he knows NOTHING about (could take months) OR hope that his Google translation is not totally weird to target a few dozen million people in a country with a culture you know nothing about?! Not mention Japanese are low-income people with low numbers of wealthy (compared to the US, AU, NZ, UK etc.)
Hmmm,.... I guess he could do that buuuut ... somehow I doubt it.