ANN/THE JAPAN NEWS – A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on the suspicion of illegally accessing the system of Rakuten Mobile Inc. by using a program obtained from three junior and senior high school students, who had already been arrested, it has been learned. The boy is unemployed and has no fixed address.
The three students are suspected of having used generative AI to create the program, which supposedly enabled them to access the system illegally and acquire mobile service accounts.
The Metropolitan Police Department and the Kanagawa prefectural police believe the 17-year-old used about 35,000 IDs purchased via social media to gain unauthorised access to the system.
According to investigative sources, the boy told police that he targeted Rakuten Mobile after learning the company permits users to open up to 15 mobile service lines with a single Rakuten ID and does not require the submission of identifying documents for additional lines.
The teen is suspected of illegally accessing Rakuten Mobile’s system in April last year using the IDs and passwords of six people, and of subsequently opening four lines using the ID and password of one of these individuals.
Arrested on Wednesday, the boy has admitted to the charges and stated that he sold roughly 100 illegally sourced lines for USD80 each through the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to the sources.
After discovering advertisements for Rakuten Mobile lines on Telegram posted by the three students, the boy intended to create accounts using their method, the sources disclosed. He acquired the program from them through unspecified means.
The boy’s computer and other devices contained the IDs and passwords of about 35,000 people, the sources said.
