By Japan Today Editor
Copyright japantoday
Japan saw a record 1.2 million phishing cases reported in the first half of 2025, data from the National Police Agency showed Thursday, putting the nation on pace to smash the previous single-year high.
There has been a steady increase in complaints about emails that direct people to fraudulent websites purporting to be operated by companies or banks, where their personal information is harvested by scammers.
With 1,196,314 reported cases in the first half of 2025, the total for the full year is expected to eclipse the record of 1,718,036 set in 2024. Just 55,787 cases were reported in 2019.
The data also showed that losses from online banking transfer scams in the January-June period totaled roughly 4.22 billion yen.
“Voice phishing,” a new tactic employed by scammers to trick people into revealing personal information over the phone, has been increasing since last fall, with a surge in securities account infiltration the result.
Phishing emails purporting to be from securities firms spiked to 73,857 in May from 104 in January. The value of shares and other financial products traded for fraudulent purposes through accounts taken over by scammers increased to about 292 billion yen in April, up from 280 million yen in January.
As for ransomware virus attacks, in total 116 cases were reported across 30 prefectures, tying the half-year record logged in the second half of 2022. This tactic involves viruses infiltrating corporate servers, rendering corporate data unusable until a ransom payment is made to the attacker.
