OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested the president of a Tokyo-based company that maintains lists of names for allegedly selling personal information to a fraud ring, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Aug. 12).
Last November, Katsumi Yamazaki, the 75-year-old president of Business Planning, allegedly sold approximately 14,800 names to the ring knowing that the data could be used for criminal purposes.
Police did not reveal whether Yamazaki admits to aiding and abetting computer fraud.
Katsumi Yamazaki (X)“Concerned about their health”
The ring specializes in tokushu sagi (“special fraud”), which is carried out on the telephone by a caller impersonating an authority figure or a victim’s relative.
The ring is suspected of using the list provided by the suspect to defraud a woman in her 60s in Hiroshima Prefecture out of approximately 2.5 million yen under the guise of a nursing care insurance refund.
Yamazaki sold the list to the ring after receiving a request. A member of the ring said, “We want a list of people in their 60s to 80s who are concerned about their health.” Including the Hiroshima case, a total of eight cases of fraud have been confirmed, with the amount lost totaling approximately 8 million yen.
Funds deposited
Business Planning emerged as part of investigations into tax refund fraud cases in Hiroshima. With a total of 3 million yen was deposited into the company’s account from the ring between October last year and April this year, Osaka police are investigating whether other lists were also sold by the suspect.
In May, the Personal Information Protection Commission issued an emergency order to the company, calling for it to stop the inappropriate sale of personal information.
Police are also investigating the possibility that he sold lists to other fraud rings.
AloJapan.com