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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo A Rakuten Mobile outlet in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, in September 2023
The Yomiuri Shimbun
21:00 JST, March 18, 2025
New warrants were served Tuesday for two junior and senior high school students suspected of using stolen credit card information to make unauthorized purchases, according to police sources.
The suspects are two of the three students who were previously arrested on suspicion of illegally accessing the systems of Rakuten Mobile Inc. with a self-made program and fraudulently subscribing to mobile phone services.
The Metropolitan Police Department rearrested a 16-year-old first-year high school student from Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, and a 15-year-old third-year junior high school student from Tachikawa, Tokyo, on suspicion of the unauthorized creation of electronic or magnetic records and fraud.
The MPD believes the suspects illegally procured about 11,000 credit card details from an illegal online source and made purchases using mobile phone services registered under stolen identities in a bid to avoid detection.
Using a program created with generative AI technology, the suspects illegally accessed the Rakuten Mobile system with about 220,000 IDs to fraudulently obtain mobile phone contracts, the sources said.
They allegedly used about 3.3 billion IDs purchased on the encrypted messaging service Telegram, and also acquired more than 10,000 credit card details from illegal websites operating in the United States, targeting users both in Japan and overseas.
This case underscores the reality of junior high and high school students’ access to illegal online information, observers said.
According to investigative sources, the high school student from Ogaki is suspected of fraudulently ordering three smartphones worth about ¥150,000 from an online shopping platform in March last year using stolen credit card information, and subsequently purchasing a fourth smartphone in April.
Investigators allege that the junior high school student defrauded a large-scale electronics retailer out of seven game-related items worth about ¥40,000 in September last year, by making purchases with electronic money funded by misappropriated card information.
Both students have admitted their involvement in the alleged crimes, according to the sources.
These two students, along with a 15-year-old third-year junior high school student from Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, were arrested last month for alleged violations of the unauthorized computer access prohibition law and related offenses.
They are suspected of logging in to the Rakuten Mobile system using stolen IDs and passwords, and fraudulently registering a total of 105 eSIM lines between May and August of last year.
After purchasing a substantial volume of other people’s credit card information, the three suspects fraudulently purchased a total of about ¥3.5 million worth of goods, including game consoles, smartphones, cosmetics and other items using the illegally contracted communication lines, and through credit card transactions, the sources said.
