5 Arrested in Japan for Alleged Credit Card Fraud to Buy Tobacco

   Tokyo, May 15 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo police have arrested five people for alleged fraudulent purchases of heated tobacco products with stolen credit card information at a convenience store in the Japanese capital.
   The suspects include Mitsuyoshi Ugajin, the 50-year-old owner of the convenience store in Shinjuku Ward, and Pham Thi Thanh Hang, a 26-year-old Vietnamese national.
   The five were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of buying some 2,800 boxes of heated tobacco products, worth about 1.64 million yen, at the convenience store using the Apple Pay iD contactless payment service over 167 times from Nov. 8 to 10 last year.
   At the convenience store, similar incidents occurred from May to November 2024, causing some 100 million yen in damage, according to people familiar with the investigation.
   Credit card information of 148 people, believed to have been stolen through phishing, had been registered to the payment service installed on smartphones. The suspects apparently aimed to resell heated tobacco products overseas.

(2025/05/15-15:00)