Big Phish, Little Phish

Today's Japan Times reports that Japanese police arrested eight people yesterday for alleged involvement in a "phishing" ring that obtained personal information from Internet users through a bogus Yahoo! Japan auction site. The Tokyo-based ring allegedly obtained personal data for about 1,000 people since last year and used some of those data to defraud about 700 people out of approximately 100 million yen (more than $890,000). From September 2005 to April 2006, the ring allegedly spammed users of Yahoo! Japan with email that purported to show their auction records. Clicking on the link in the spam took users to a bogus Yahoo! auction site at which many evidently disclosed their IDs and passwords. The members of the ring allegedly then used some of these identifying data to access the real Yahoo! Japan site and conduct bogus auctions, in which bidders who thought they were successful wired payments to the ring's bank accounts.
Interestingly, police reportedly disclosed more details than usual in Internet crime cases about how they tracked down the ring members. According to the article, police said that investigators analyzed Internet access records "and videos from security monitors at financial institutions where the wired money was withdrawn."
The same article also reported that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had turned over to prosecutors the case of a 14-year-old boy who allegedly ran a separate phishing scheme. The scheme reportedly involved obtaining names and email addresses of dozens of people who thought they were registering for an online gaming site. The boy, who allegedly admitted to the scheme, said that he used these data to access a real online gaming site to play online games and send threatening emails to some of his victims. Police also said that they do not plan to arrest the boy "because he lives with his parents and there is little risk that he will flee or destroy evidence."