Mainichi reporter hit with $11,500 trading card bill shares lessons as fraud soars in Japan

TOKYO — “Your Card has been suspended due to suspicious activity.”

This Mainichi Shimbun reporter received this message from my credit card company in November. Upon checking, I found a transaction of ¥1.78 million (about $11,530) that I didn’t remember in my account history.

Fraudulent credit card purchases are on the rise in Japan, reaching an all-time high of about 540 million yen ($3.5 million) in 2023. What I learned about almost falling victim to unauthorized card use of credit was the insight and ingenuity of the tricks employed. by the perpetrators.

A Taste of Success: Common follow-up attacks

Recently, phishing tactics are also rampant, used to steal people’s personal information through messages pretending to be alerts from their credit card company. It took me an hour to first determine if the aforementioned alert was real or fake. Through the official website of the company, I entered the authentication code of the message and confirmed that the unauthorized use was real and that my card was frozen.

I then immediately called the company’s security help desk and received two simple questionnaires and filled out the situation. Because the amount used was large, I was informed that the investigation would take time and that reissuing a card would take longer than usual.

According to their explanation, the huge transaction was for an online purchase from a merchant card company. Trading cards based on Japanese anime are popular even overseas, and in some cases can fetch prices of millions of yen (tens of thousands of dollars). They are also easy to resell.

What surprised me was the evidence that my credit card was used in two attempts to register an account with an online grocer, one the day after the fraudulent purchase and another four days later. Because the card was frozen, these attempts failed. The security guy told me that repeat attacks after an initial fraud are common. Once a transaction is successful, attackers will try to register the card on other sites to see if it can still be used.

Starting at a few hundred yen

During the security quiz, I was asked about online purchases in the days before the fraud. This tested my memory of about ¥300 ($2 USD) worth of transactions.

Apparently, the frauds often start with a series of smaller, hard-to-spot transactions in the range of a few hundred yen (a few dollars), then grow in size as the perpetrators take a wait-and-see approach.

It’s disturbing to think of someone trying to take money out of someone’s card without them knowing. Where did they get the card information from?

The security official could not say for sure, but said that because the three-digit security code was also used, the information may have been taken in an alleged attack on an e-commerce site that I visited previously. Most of the information leakage cases in recent years are caused in this way or by phishing through fake emails or websites.

Check your credit card bills frequently

As phishing sites become more and more sophisticated, this cannot be said in vain, but people, to some extent, have ways to defend themselves. However, I wondered if consumers were completely helpless in cases where such information was leaked from e-commerce sites used in the past.

The security official’s response was that “The only way to prevent damage is to check your statements frequently for unauthorized use.” Most card companies have a 60-day period in which compensation is possible. The official said it’s important to double-check that the point of sale, date and time and amounts add up — even for mundane transactions.

Compensation is not guaranteed

In this case, I was eligible for compensation, so the ordeal cost me nothing financially. The trading book company also canceled the sale, avoiding any losses. In principle, the question of whether to file a police report rests with those who have been hit financially.

The Japan Consumer Credit Association collects data on fraudulent use to clarify the facts about credit card misappropriation. A public relations official sounded a note of caution about compensation, saying, “If you don’t check your statements carefully, or if the deadline passes without noticing suspicious sales, you won’t be compensated.” The group also issues security guidelines for companies incorporating the latest information.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requires the introduction of identity verification mechanisms, such as unique passwords for purchases, in addition to the entry of credit card information, at all e-commerce stores in principle by the end of March 2025.

(Japanese original by Atsuko Ota, Digital News Department)