Police arrested eight people Tuesday linked to a "phishing" ring that stole personal information from people who accessed a fake Yahoo Japan auction site.
It is the first police crackdown on organized phishing fraud, according to Kyoto police, who investigated the case along with the Shizuoka and Kumamoto forces.
The first suspect arrested, Takayuki Matsuoka, 34, a resident of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, faces charges of fraud and of violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law. Later in the day, police also arrested the other seven in the Tokyo-based ring.