Chinese hackers blamed for rising rate of thefts from Japanese banks

Japanese savers keeping their money in banks are falling prey to cyber-theft in record numbers, and police say Chinese crime groups are increasingly to blame.

Criminals stole 1.85 billion yen (HK$122.4 million) from accounts at lenders including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group in the six months to June, surpassing the full-year record of 1.41 billion yen in 2013, according to the National Police Agency.

Of 133 related arrests in the first half of the year, Chinese nationals made up the largest group with 83, or 62 per cent, almost double the arrests of Japanese. Last year, 59 Chinese were arrested for bank cyber-theft, up from 14 in 2012, the first year the agency separated data by nationality.

"We see a very deep Chinese connection in these cyber-theft cases," said Arichika Eguchi, the police agency's director of cyber-crime investigations. "Japanese people's wealth is draining into China."

According to police, Chinese gangs hack into Japanese bank accounts by tricking customers into giving up their passwords or opening malicious software. They steal the money by transferring it to other accounts in Japan, then hire people who live in the country to withdraw the cash at automated teller machines. Those people deliver the money to colleagues in Japan who use it to buy goods that are shipped to China. There, the products are sold, with the proceeds going to the ringleaders.

Japan's biggest banks - Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho Financial Group - are alerting customers about the increase in online theft and compensating victims on a case-by-case basis, spokesmen for the three companies said.