FUKUOKA — Victims of phishing cases in which scammers send messages designed to prompt fear to make people access fake websites and register their personal information are increasing across Japan.
In March this year, “Keiko” (a pseudonym) received multiple emails from her bank, all with the subject line “You’ve completed a money transfer.” The Fukushima Prefecture resident in her 20s felt something was off, and checked her transfer history via the bank’s official app. She was shocked to see that a total of about 200,000 yen (some $1,500) had been transferred to an unknown bank account in several batches.
Confused as to who did it and how, she remembered an email from her mobile carrier she’d received a few hours earlier. It read, “Please update your payment method to the easy payment system from the URL below.”
Keiko regularly used a service which allowed her to pay for online shopping together with her mobile phone charges. When she clicked on the link, a familiar logo of her mobile carrier showed up, and the design looked very similar to the actual website. Without a doubt, she registered her bank account and her credit card number.
This is an example of a phishing case that was reported to Fukuoka Prefectural Police. Attackers impersonate a company or…
