OSAKA -- Police searched the Osaka branch office of NTT West on Wednesday for evidence against a former employee arrested the previous day for allegedly receiving bribes from so-called Dial Q2 service companies in exchange for information on NTT customers.
Kenichi Uchida, 44, is suspected of passing on private information, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of about 3,000 NTT subscribers, to the Dial Q2 firms between August 1998 and April this year while working at the Osaka office.
Osaka police also arrested Motokazu Takayama, 34, and Kosei Murai, 31, operators of two Dial Q2 service firms. Dial Q2 services are often used for telephone dating.
The arrest warrants directly cover the several hundred items of personal data leaked by Uchida in January this year. He is believed to have received several hundred thousand yen in return, according to investigators.
The two Q2 operators are believed to have used the leaked information to help them recover money from customers whose payments were in arrears, they added.