Japan's e-money laundering nearly tripled in 2019
Source: Xinhua | 2020-11-06
Japan's National Police Agency said on Thursday that nearly 4,000 suspected money laundering cases were reported last year, most of which were linked to e-money transfer providers.
The 3,913 cases reported in 2019 by non-bank funds transfer service operators nearly tripled the figure of 1,391 recorded in 2018.
The agency attributed the spike of e-money laundering to the rapid expansion of e-money payment services that allow people to make transfers easily and with lower service fees, adding that police have become increasingly vigilant for such offenses.
After analyzing a total of 6,586 suspected money laundering cases which involved e-money services between 2017 and 2019, the agency found 904 were linked to frequent money transfers made to many accounts after a large deposit, while 581 cases involved making repeated transfers overseas in a short period of time.
E-money services have increasingly been used in criminal activities in Japan. NTT Docomo Inc. said in September that more than 20 million yen (190,000 U.S. dollars) was stolen from bank accounts linked to its e-money service.
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