Arrests and Consultations of Cybercrime in 2003


1. Arrest of Cybercrime
"Cybercrime" consists of three categories; "Violation of Unauthorized Computer Access Law", "Crime against computer / data" and "Internet Crime".
The number of arrests by violation of Unauthorized Computer Access
Law is increasing every year.
The number of arrests of Cybercrime in 2003 is 1,849 (approximately 115% of the number in 2002). The number of the Internet Crime is 1,649 (approximately 89% of the number of Cybercrime). Many of Internet Crime consist of, for example,
  • violation of the child prostitution and child pornography law and juvenile protection ordinance, utilizing "internet dating service sites"
  • fraud, distribution of obscene objects and violation of copyright protection law, utilizing "internet auction sites"
  • defamation and threat, utilizing "Bulletin Board System(BBS)"

2. Consultation about Cybercrime
The number of Consultations about Cybercrime is 41,754 (approximately 220% of the number in 2002). The number about email faking money charge is approximately 43% of the entire consultations.
  • The number of consultations about fraud and sharp business is 20,738, approximately 6.5 times as many as the number of the previous year. The number of 17,838 of 20,738 is related to consultation about email faking money charge.
  • The number of consultations about internet auction is 5,999, approximately 1.5 times as many as the previous year.

3. Countermeasures promoted by Police
  • to hold the Comprehensive Security Meeting in cooperation with Industrial Circles.
  • to promote PR activities by using internet homepage, video and pamphlet, for prevention of cybercrime.
  • to raise public awareness by release of Research & Development report about countermeasures against unauthorised computer access.
  • to provide warning and related information about activities of "Slammer worm" and "Blaster worm".
  • to alert internet fraud and sharp business such as email faking money charge.
Number of Arrest of Cybercrime
 2000200120022003 
Unauthorized Computer Access6767105145+40
Crime against Computer/Data44633055+25
 Computer Fraud 33 48 18 34 +16
 Illegal Production/Destruction of electro-magnetic data 9 11 8 12 +4
 Obstruction of business by destroying computer 2 4 4 9 +5
Internet Crime8021,2091,4711,649+178
 Child Prostitution8121117245268408269371+1-37
Child Pornography113128140102-38
 Fraud 306 485 514 521 +7
 Distribution of Obscene Object 154 103 109 113 +4
 Violation of juvenile protection ordinance 2 10 70 120 +50
 Intimidation 17 40 33 38 +5
 Infringement of Copyright 80 86 66 87 +21
 Defamation 30 42 27 46 +19
 Others 92 198 244 353 +109
Total9131,3391,6061,849+243
Major Cases of Cybercrime in 2003

Violation of the Unauthorized Computer Access Law

Unemployed person and others collected IDs and passwords unjustly by using the program which records the history of the input by the keyboard in the internet cafe and carried out the unauthorized computer access with the unjustly collected ID and password for internet banking service. They transferred 16 million yen (about $14,000) to the account of the fictitious name which they established in order to obtain money.
(Arrest in March 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

A person intruded illegally on the web server which was administrated by high school, computer service company and hospital to test own hacking technique and tampered their homepage files.
(Arrest in October 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

Crime against computer/data

(Illegal production of Electro-magnetic Record for a Payment Card)
A person obtained the information of credit cards of several customers by using the "skimming" technique and recorded the information on magnetic strip of separate cards and illegally produced payment cards.
(Arrest in February 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

(Computer Fraud)
A former employee of electrical appliances shop obtained the information of credit cards of several customers from the sale slip in the shop and inputted the credit card number into the computer of electronic money company. He illicitly purchased electronic money, the total amount of about 144,000 yen.
(Arrest in November 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

Internet Crime

Internet crime is defined as a crime, which uses a computer network in connection with action relevant to constituent elements of a crime, or which a computer network is not relevant to constituent element of but indispensable to carry out.

(Violation of the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography law)
A person did child prostitution through sending an email to a high school student who had written message of deal about prostitution at the online dating site for the mobile phone.
(Arrest in February 2003, Miyagi Prefecture)

A person established the mailing list of the information exchange concerning child pornography on the internet. Then he distributed juvenile obscene picture to many people.
(Arrest in October 2003, Aichi prefecture)

(Violation of the Law Concerning the Regulation of Acts Inducing Children Using the Internet Dating Services and Other matters)
A person wrote message at the online dating site for the mobile phone, such as, "I am looking for less than 13 years old girl who make love with me. I will pay more than 20,000 yen".
(Arrest in September 2003, Kanagawa prefecture)

(Fraud)
A person sent about 2,350,000 emails with message such as "I bought your unpaid charge for the access to adult contents site, please transfer money to the designated account" and deceived about 10 million yen from about 300 victims.
(Arrest in June 2003, Ibaraki prefecture)

A person posted false information on the internet auction, such as "I sell the high-class brand-name bag" and deceived about 800,000 yen from the successful bidder.
(Arrest in January 2003, Hyogo prefecture)

(Defamation)
A person wrote defect of body of the chief of local government and bad rumor of his election campaign on the BBS on the Internet, thereby defamed the chief's reputation.
(Arrest in March 2003, Kochi prefecture)

A person put the message on the BBS of the Internet, such as "I will kill 3 children in B elementary school after a week. I will choose X as one of them."
(Arrest in February 2003, Tochigi prefecture)

(Obstruction of Business)
A person transmitted approximately 3 million spam mail to cellular phones indiscriminately in order to advertise his pay site. Then he obstructed internet service provider's business by letting the provider keep 200,000 emails to the mail server.
(Arrest in October 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

(Distribution of Obscene Image)
A person posted the obscene image which synthesized photograph of female idol's face to photograph of female nude on the Internet and sold CD-R containing this obscene image.
(Arrest in June 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

(Violation of Copyright Law)
A person made it possible for everyone to download the game software on the internet using the online storage service without permission of the copyright holder.
(Arrest in April 2003, Kyoto prefecture)

A person made it possible for everyone to download the files of movie and game on the internet using the file-sharing software "Winny" without permission of the copyright holder.
(Arrest in November 2003, Kyoto prefecture)

(Violation of Law Controlling Possession, etc. of Firearms and Sword)
A person exhibited a handgun to the internet auction with message such as "It is a real revolver" and tried to sell it.
(Arrest in May 2003, Metropolitan Police Department)

(Violation of Anti- Drug Special law)
A person put the message on the BBS on the Internet, such as "I have white powder and the price of one package is 10,000 yen. Please tell me the quantity and the address to send it". Thus he incited unspecified number of persons to abuse stimulants (methanphetamine).
(Arrest in October 2003, Hyogo prefecture)

(Violation of Stalker Control Law)
A person sent dozens of emails to a former girlfriend, such as "If you rejected to meet me, I would die" and committed stalking conduct.
(Arrest in November 2003, Hiroshima prefecture)

Number of Consultations about Cybercrime
Types of Consultation2000200120022003
Fraud and Sharp Business1,3961,9633,19320,738
 Email faking momey charge---17,838
Internet Auction1,3012,0993,9785,999
Illegal and Harmful Information2,8963,2822,2614,225
Defamation1,8842,2672,5662,619
Spam Mail1,3522,6472,1302,329
Unauthorized Access/Computer Virus5051,3351,2461,147
Others1,8013,6843,9554,697
Total11,13517,27719,32941,754

*"Others" include consultations related to troubles with internet service providers as well as general consultations about network security.
*There is no data about "email faking money charge" before 2003.
Typical Consultations in 2003
1 Consultations about Fraud and Sharp Business(including the consultation related to about Email faking money charge)
  • I received the email faking money charge from the loan company. But I do not have memory of watching pay site.
  • My daughter (high school student) received the advertising mail of the adult site to her cellular phone. She accessed this site with curiosity but she stopped it immediately. Then she got the mail which claims 30,000 yen as the charge of pay.
  • Although I ordered the feather futon through the homepage of the mail order on the internet and transferred the money to the designated bank account, I didn't receive the goods on promised date. So I checked the homepage again and found out that the homepage closed down already.

2 Consultations about Internet Auction
  • I won a bit for a personal computer on the internet auction and transferred money to the designated bank account. Although I sent emails repeatedly, there is no reply from exhibitor and I haven't received the goods yet.
  • I won a bit for a digital camera on the internet auction, but I received the camera which was already broken. Although I want to ask the exhibitor of this camera, I can not get the address of the person.

3 Consultation about Illegal and Harmful Information
  • Someone has sent to me the email of content of bank account selling. This mail said "This is the sale for the account of the bank. Please use this account for side business. I have various kinds of the bank accounts".
  • There is the web site which advertises the illegal sale of medicine. This web site said, "I have the medicine which is first arrival one in Japan. Please use this medicine instead of tranquilizer".

4 Consultation about Defamation
  • The trade partner on the internet auction put the message of false evaluation about me on the internet. Although I asked the manager of the internet auction site to delete this message, he did not respond to it.
  • I have frequent telephone calls for dating service. I asked the person who called me and he said that my cellular phone number and message for customers of dating service were on the BBS.

5 Consultation about Spam Mail
  • The email advertising internet dating service sites was sent to my cellular phone. I tried to send an email to refuse reception of the spam mail, but I got error and I could not send it.
  • Advertising emails are frequently sent to my cellular phone. I found out that some emails were from my email address. I am worried that my mail address might be used for sending spam mails.

6 Consultation about Unauthorized Access and Computer Viruses
  • There was the message on the BBS on the internet, such as "I made the homepage which infects browsing computer with a virus".
  • The character which I used on the online game was eliminated and my password was changed.

7 Others.
  • We set the wireless LAN on the company, but we can access the neighbor's wireless LAN, too. We guess that the cause is the neighbor's computer security.