Overview
- Tokyo Metropolitan Police detained a 19-year-old from Nerima who ran a site enabling illegal contracts and a 20-year-old technical college student from Asahikawa who used it to obtain lines, with both acknowledging the allegations.
- Police estimate roughly 1,000 Rakuten Mobile lines were fraudulently contracted in 2024 using stolen account IDs and passwords to pose as legitimate customers.
- The site operated between June and November 2024, accepted cryptocurrency payments, issued QR codes to activate eSIMs, and charged about $150 per account, yielding around ¥600,000.
- Investigators believe more than 5 million Rakuten customer credentials were obtained from overseas websites and used to facilitate the illegal activations.
- Authorities say true account holders suffered higher usage fees and other disadvantages, and the cybercrime unit continues to probe the credential sources and the broader network of users.