Society

Japan's e-money service fraud widens; 5 other operators involved

Sep 16 (Japan Today) - Fraudulent e-money withdrawals in Japan have expanded to five other service operators in addition to NTT Docomo Inc, internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday.

All the five firms found improper withdrawals from accounts at Japan Post Bank Co. Among the five, Z Holdings Corp, a subsidiary of mobile phone operator SoftBank Corp, said it has found 17 cases of fraudulent money withdrawals totaling 1.41 million yen ($13,400) through its smartphone payment service PayPay.

Tokyo-based startup Kyash Inc was another company hit by fraudulent withdrawals, according to the bank. It declined to disclose the names of the remaining three service firms for "security reasons."

Similar to the recent scam involving NTT Docomo, in which 26.76 million yen has been confirmed as stolen from more than 10 partnered banks including Japan Post Bank as of midnight Tuesday, third parties are believed to have created unauthorized accounts on the service before linking them to Japan Post Bank accounts to transfer funds.

Japan Post Bank said Tuesday it would suspend new registrations and fund transfers on eight e-money services which have not implemented multiple identification checks, such as a one-time password, to prevent spoofing.

In addition to PayPay, the services are Line Pay, Paypal, Wellnet, Rakuten Edy, Billing System, Merpay and You-Me Card.

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