2,300 Handsets Used in Remittance Fraud in Japan in Jan.-June

Tokyo, Dec. 2 (Jiji Press)--About 2,300 mobile phone handsets were used in so-called remittance fraud in Japan in January-June, with Softbank
Mobile Corp. handsets accounting for some 70 pct of the total, Jiji Press
learned Tuesday.
The proportion is far higher than Softbank Mobile's domestic mobile
phone market share that stood at 18.4 pct as of the end of June.
Meanwhile, handsets of industry leader NTT DoCoMo Inc. <9437>
accounted for some 20 pct of the mobile phones used in the fraud cases in
the 2008 first half, according to police investigations. The proportion
stood at less than 10 pct for handsets of second-ranking KDDI Corp. <9433>.
The National Police Agency believes that lax identity checks by
mobile phone carriers have led to the frequent use of mobile phones in
billing fraud.
Meanwhile, officials of Softbank Mobile, a subsidiary of Internet
and telecommunications business group Softbank Corp. <9984>, said that the
firm has no idea why its handsets were used in many of the fraud cases. The
company is taking various measures to check IDs of new subscribers, they
said.
A driver's license, passport or other official IDs are required for
mobile phone subscriptions.
However, a senior police official said that identity checks used to
be lax at some handset retailers.
New subscriptions were often approved based only on decisions by
sales clerks who were not regular employees, the official said, adding that
the practice reflected mobile carriers' campaigns to boost handset sales.
Another police official said some retailers used to approve new
subscriptions only with copies of ID cards.
Police suspect that fake IDs are sometimes used in mobile phone
subscriptions. But they tend to go unnoticed in many cases because it is
difficult to distinguish between official and fake IDs.
To cope with the situation, mobile phone carriers are starting this
month to ask for police checks if they find suspicious driver's licenses.
Next spring, the Telecommunications Carriers Association plans to
introduce rules requiring mobile phone bills to be paid only through credit
cards or automatic deductions from deposit accounts.
The industry group is also holding meetings to let mobile phone
firms know more about fake ID cards.