Police will open a new page on the Facebook to seek information on a series of intimidating messages posted online from remotely controlled computers.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Facebook page will open at 4 p.m. Friday, according to a joint investigative team comprising the Tokyo, Osaka, Kanagawa and Mie police forces.

Four innocent people were arrested between July and September after email threats were sent from their computers, which had been infected with malicious software that allowed them to be controlled from elsewhere.

The Facebook page will carry detailed information on the virus, which is called "iesys.exe," the team said.

Remittance fraud surge

jiji

The amount of money stolen via bank remittance fraud came to ¥13.898 billion from January to November, breaking the total for 2011 by roughly ¥1.1 billion, the National Police Agency has announced.

The amount has been rising since 2010, after falling sharply to some ¥9.5 billion in 2009 following increased law enforcement efforts.