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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo A Metropolitan Police Department building
The Yomiuri Shimbun
17:51 JST, March 26, 2025
Three students, aged 15 to 18, have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of defrauding people out of money for concert tickets. The group is suspected of using illegally obtained Rakuten Mobile Inc. service accounts to register for electronic payment services.
In connection with Rakuten Mobile service accounts, the police have so far uncovered criminal incidents involving two groups of young people who allegedly used a program created with generative artificial intelligence to illegally log into the Rakuten Mobile system and obtain mobile service accounts.
The latest arrest of the three teenagers, who are junior high and high school aged, is the third in a series of Rakuten Mobile-related incidents.
The latest arrest, which took place between March 3-18, revealed that the illegally obtained Rakuten Mobile service accounts are being spread and used for criminal purposes.
According to investigative sources, the three teenagers, including a 17-year-old second-year high school student in Tokyo, allegedly posted on X saying they would sell concert tickets, between January and September last year. Nine women transferred a total of about ¥300,000 to them through the electronic payment service app PayPay. The teens used their illegally obtained Rakuten Mobile service accounts to register for the app.
All three have admitted to the charges and said they used the money to gamble on online casinos.
The accounts used by the three were sold to them by another three junior high and high school students, including a 15-year-old junior high school student in Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, through the highly confidential communication app Telegram. The 15-year-old was arrested in February and sent to family court.
The high school student from Tokyo who was arrested this time is said to have purchased the accounts through a different social media platform, according to the sources.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office referred a 15-year-old third-year junior high school student from Tachikawa, Tokyo, who was a part of the same group as the Maibara student and was responsible for selling the Rakuten Mobile service accounts, to the Tokyo Family Court on charges of violating the Law on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access, among other offenses.
