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The rise of cryptocurrency fraud is rampant in Japan
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The rise of cryptocurrency fraud is rampant in Japan

News Desk
News Desk
January 31st, 2023
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Japan is the home of the most innovated and advanced technology developments. The country is also known for its success and well-planned projects from consumer goods, to gaming, and technology.

Since the country’s utilization and dependency on technology and digitalization, cryptocurrency is a given factor to be explored by Japanese individuals. Yet, Japanese consumers already reported 33 different cases of cryptocurrency frauds in the last seven months of 2017.

Cryptocurrency frauds accounted for more than 500 million dollars-worth of cryptocurrency deficit. Reports from the National Police Agency (NPA) reveal that fraud-related thefts of cryptocurrency worth ¥76.5 million or $710,848 happened between the months of January and July 2017.

As the years progress, cryptocurrency-related thefts kept growing. In fact, in July 2017 alone, the NPA reported a ¥17.3 million-worth of cryptocurrency stolen. These cryptocurrencies involved Bitcoins, Ethereum, and Ripple.

According to a Japanese newspaper report, Ripple is the most affected with a ¥29.6 million reported theft. It was followed by Bitcoin at almost ¥29.3 million-worth. Other affected cryptocurrencies were Ethereum and NEM amounting to ¥200,000 and ¥100,000-worth of a deficit, respectively.

Low security in place

Victims of the cryptocurrency frauds usually do not have secure authentication setups in place. Most individuals who were victimized by the said scam did not have a two-factor authentication activated on their accounts. The two-factor authentication gives an additional layer of security to any digital account. Moreover, these accounts require tokens to be able to log in.

The NPA did not divulge any information about attackers involved in the cryptocurrency fraud. In fact, up to this date, there are no records of the funds being transferred due to the fraud. Moreover, the agency believes that the funds from fraudulent doing by the scammers were already converted to other forms of resources such as cash reserves, and other assets.

The agency is looking forward to reducing cases like these so individuals can manage their digital assets more securely.

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