Japan's NTT Docomo Admits Thieves Breeched Its e-Money Service (japantimes.co.jp) 21
Long-time Slashdot reader PuceBaboon tipped us off to a story in Japan Times:
About 18 million yen ($169,563) has been stolen from bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo Inc.'s e-money service, the company said Thursday, prompting police to begin an investigation into a suspected scam. As of Thursday, 66 cases of improper withdrawals from bank accounts linked to the mobile carrier's e-money service had been confirmed, NTT Docomo Vice President Seiji Maruyama told a news conference in Tokyo.
"We apologize to the victims" of the improper withdrawals, Maruyama said at the news conference, which was also attended by other company executives.
Maruyama acknowledged that checks on user identification had been "insufficient." NTT Docomo, which has stopped allowing customers to create new links between its e-money service and accounts at 35 partner banks, has said it will try to compensate victims for the full amounts stolen through negotiations with the banks.... In May last year, there were similar cases of improper withdrawals from Resona Bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo's e-money service. Docomo acknowledged it had failed to boost user identity checks to prevent a recurrence...
In the recent cases, third parties are believed to have obtained the victims' bank account numbers and passwords, and used them to register with the e-money service to transfer funds.
"We apologize to the victims" of the improper withdrawals, Maruyama said at the news conference, which was also attended by other company executives.
Maruyama acknowledged that checks on user identification had been "insufficient." NTT Docomo, which has stopped allowing customers to create new links between its e-money service and accounts at 35 partner banks, has said it will try to compensate victims for the full amounts stolen through negotiations with the banks.... In May last year, there were similar cases of improper withdrawals from Resona Bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo's e-money service. Docomo acknowledged it had failed to boost user identity checks to prevent a recurrence...
In the recent cases, third parties are believed to have obtained the victims' bank account numbers and passwords, and used them to register with the e-money service to transfer funds.
Breeched? (Score:2)
Does that mean they put it in their pants, put pants on it, or loaded it into a cannon and fired it at the moon?
Is Slashdot run by Russian trolls directly now? It certainly seems to have enough errors.
Re: (Score:3)
Are you a gay geriatric? Stop watching FOX News.
I can't make any sense of your comment. Faux News denies russian collusion, interference, etc. You should have said "Stop watching CNN"
Re: (Score:1)
thank you.
>I think you meant "breached".....
>https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/breach-breech/
>cw
Re: (Score:2)
Does that mean they put it in their pants, put pants on it, or loaded it into a cannon and fired it at the moon?
Clearly, it meant they pulled their pants down!
"pants": US, informal : to yank down the pants of (someone) as a prank or joke
Re: (Score:2)
Is Slashdot run by Russian trolls directly now? It certainly seems to have enough errors.
I'm thinking, former Guardian editors.
Re: (Score:2)
Grauniad. Show some respect.
Impressive, guys... (Score:2)
I'm not expecting altruism out of a telco; but purely to preserve the reputation for reasonable trustworthiness that makes potential customers more likely to have you handle money for them, it seems like just eating under $200k in losses and settling the whole matter as quietly as possible would have been the preferred solution.
Negotiating with banks isn't going to be free and c
Re: (Score:2)
I assume its either a limitation of Jap law, or that the banks are technically forced to reimburse since they have the insurance policies.
Then again, this is a Jap story. There is a lot of details I would like to know, since their snowflake parallel systems tend to be fun or effective. Or old.
Re: (Score:2)
It depends you could recruit insiders. So you deposit a large amount of money in their account, then 'cough' 'cough' hack the account and withdraw the money and then claim it was stolen and demand refund. It really depends upon the pattern of accounts attacked, it would track down where those customers have been, some likely would be insiders and others probably targeted at a locale, where they would be making withdrawals, say a teller machine near a pachinko parlour. A secluded camera mounted above the mac
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I think they're just straight up required to compensate it as to avoid criminal charges for fraud in the end.
it's one thing if you lose your bank credentials and they get used by someone. that someone created a new bank credential and used that to make withdrawals is a separate thing alltogether and something the bank is responsible for in japan, I'd imagine. it's not like they operate under the same bs lawyerese as paypal does.
I doubt they're allowed to have in their banking terms of service a clause that
Funny money, but who's laughing? (Score:2)
Too bad your relevant comment wasn't the actual FP (notwithstanding your weak Subject). Alternatively, the actual FP could have been actually funny or constructive. (Lots of people don't know the mnemonic about "break" and "breach".)
Main response to your comment is that the damages may be much larger than that. Even vastly larger. I still think they have to make the victims whole, but right now everyone is hurting for money, so it might be a factor preventing them from just coming out and promising to refun
Story doesn't load without JS, fuck yo story (Score:3)
What the hell is an e-Money service, anyway? My bank lets me make transfers to other members through the web/app, and offers credit cards. Isn't that e-Money? This article which loads fine without JS doesn't explain what it is either [regulationasia.com].
Ahh, here is an explanation [marketwatch.com]: "Once users have linked their accounts, NTT Docomo's service offers a number of functions to customers such as transferring money between accounts and paying for shopping." So yeah, NTT Docomo calls ordinary banking activity "e-Money". What a bunch of noobs.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a legacy thing. Long long before we had contactless payment in the West, back when flip phones were all the rage, Japan started doing smartphone payments.
It used to be some special account you could load with money but then it got changed to a linked account.
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So it was totally cool and now it's just totally owned?
Microsoft Windows strikes again (Score:2)
Breech (Score:2)
Nice pants!
Re: (Score:2)
well they'll pay for it and thats it.
japanese government might be a joke but the banks will take their own.
Sir, we have a... (Score:1)