Online banking fraud surged to about ¥4.22 billion ($28.6 million) in the first half of 2025, a roughly 73% jump from last year and the fastest pace on record for the period, according to a police report released Thursday.
The National Police Agency warned that the annual tally could exceed the previous full-year high of ¥8.73 billion in 2023.
According to the agency, the number of fraudulent money transfers in the first half of this year rose from 1,728 in the same period last year to 2,593, with the amount of losses increasing by about 73% from approximately ¥2.44 billion.
By age, the largest number of victims were those in their 20s at 865, followed by those in their 50s at 351 and those in their 30s at 330.
Most of the losses stemmed from phishing attacks, where victims were lured to fake websites through emails disguised as communications from banks or companies, and had their IDs and passwords stolen. Reports to the Council of Anti-Phishing Japan — which is made up of Japanese financial institutions and organizations — nearly doubled from a year earlier to 1.196 million cases in the six months through June, putting them on track to surpass last year’s annual record of 1.718 million.
Phishing emails posing as major securities firms spiked between March and May, topping 70,000 in May alone. Fraudulent access to online brokerage accounts reached 13,121 cases in the first half of the year, with illegal trades totaling about ¥578 billion.
The agency also flagged a rise in so-called “voice phishing” scams from February to April, in which fraudsters impersonated financial institutions over the phone to extract account details from companies. A total of 63 cases targeting small and medium-sized enterprises occurred between February and April. The total amount of losses amounted to around ¥2.15 billion, which is about 50% of all fraudulent remittances, with some cases involving transfers of approximately ¥400 million.
While no incidents have been reported since May, police said continued vigilance is needed as new tactics emerge.
The agency convened an expert panel Thursday to discuss revising the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds, with a focus on clamping down on money mule schemes and introducing new investigative tools.
Known as sōkin baito or “remittance part-time jobs,” the scheme recruits people via social media with promises of easy cash if they transfer funds from their bank accounts to designated recipients. Because transactions are made from the participants’ own accounts, the scheme often falls outside current regulations targeting the sale of accounts, making prosecution difficult.
The panel will consider reclassifying such transfers as acts of money laundering subject to penalties. It will also weigh tougher punishments for account trading, currently capped at up to one year in prison or a fine of ¥1 million. Police data show 4,362 arrests for account trafficking in 2024, 3.5 times the level seen when the current penalties were introduced in 2011.
Another proposal under review is allowing police to set up undercover bank accounts, letting them trace illegal funds or disrupt criminal activity. Such an approach would require legal changes, as current law prohibits opening accounts under any name other than the holder’s own.
The advisory panel, made up of lawyers and academics, aims to finalize recommendations by early 2026. The agency intends to submit a bill to amend the law during the ordinary parliament session that year.
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