In Japan, hackers have been stealing securities accounts and selling all the stocks before heavily accumulating shares of small corporations listed on the Chinese securities market, manipulating stock prices to gain profits in a new type of phishing crime.
Bloomberg News reported on the 24th that a new type of phishing crime involving the theft of online securities accounts to conduct illegal trading is rampant in Japan. This fraudulent trading began in February. According to the Financial Services Agency of Japan, the number of reported phishing crime victims was 33 in February, 685 in March, and surged to 736 from the 1st to the 15th of this month.
The amount of damages suffered by Japanese investors amounts to 100 billion yen (approximately 1 trillion won). Such cases of damage occurred at eight securities firms, including Nomura Securities, SBI Securities, and Rakuten Securities.
According to Bloomberg, hackers invaded Japanese investors' securities accounts and concentrated on purchasing stocks with low trading volumes among global stocks from the U.S., China, and Japan, making it easy to manipulate stock prices.
According to ANN Broadcasting, the hacker first buys shares of Company A in China, which they decided to manipulate the stock price. Then, after logging into the hacked Japanese investors' securities accounts, they sell the stocks held by these investors and use that money to heavily purchase shares of Company A. Since shares of Company A have a low trading volume, the stock price rises easily. At this point, the hacker sells their shares of Company A to gain profit.
A woman in her 60s who fell victim to this new phishing crime told ANN Broadcasting, "I held shares in 30 companies, and 27 of them were sold. With that money, shares in eight companies I didn’t even know were purchased," adding that "the loss amounts to 9.7 million to 9.8 million yen (approximately 97 million to 98 million won)." Another victim stated, "The loss amount is about 9.6 million yen," explaining that "with that money, shares of a small Chinese company called NOIZ GROUP were purchased."
Concerns are also being raised about the inadequate response from investigative authorities in Japan. Mori Mai, 41, who works part-time, had her retirement pension account hacked by Rakuten Securities. When she inquired with Rakuten Securities, she was told to "report to the police," but when she went to the police station, they did not accept her report, saying that "the victim is not you but the securities firm."
Rakuten Securities reportedly told Mori that "it is not the company's fault, so we cannot provide damage support." In response to an inquiry from Bloomberg, a Rakuten Securities official said, "We will review and respond diligently on an individual basis." SBI Securities responded that they are "responding swiftly after understanding the circumstances of the victims."
Finance Minister and Financial Services Minister Kato Katsunobu stated at a press conference on the 22nd that the government has instructed each securities firm to respond diligently to compensate customers for their losses. The Japan Securities Dealers Association has demanded that member securities firms enforce multi-factor authentication.
Concerns have been raised that the low awareness and defense levels regarding cybersecurity among Japanese people are problematic. International cybercrime expert Sota Yukimi noted that "until now, even if one received a fraudulent email, it was easy to recognize as a scam because the Japanese was not natural," adding that "now, the emergence of generative AI allows for the mass production of natural Japanese sentences."
It has been explained that Japan had a relatively lower level of cybersecurity compared to other countries due to the so-called "language barrier," and that the emergence of AI like ChatGPT has neutralized this natural defense. phishing emails targeting Japan have surged this year, and as of March, 85.9% targeted Japan.