On Friday, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued a short warning about fake base stations.
昨今、都内周辺をはじめとする一部の都市において、不法無線局の疑いのある無線機器からの携帯電話サービスへの混信事案が発生しており、携帯電話が圏外となったり、フィッシング詐欺等の不審なSMSを受信したりするなどの事象が発生しています。
実在するサイトを装って利用者を誘導するフィッシングは、近年、その手口がますます巧妙化していますので、怪しいSMSやメールのリンクをクリックしたり、IDやパスワード、個人情報などを入力したりしないよう、くれぐれもご注意ください。
Recently, in some cities, including around Tokyo, there have been cases of interference with mobile phone services from wireless devices suspected to be illegal wireless stations, resulting in mobile phones being out of range or receiving suspicious SMS messages such as phishing scams.
Phishing, which lures users to sites disguised as real sites, has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, so please be careful not to click on links in suspicious SMS or emails or enter your ID, password, or other personal information.
The government did not state what they intend to do about these SMS blasters. Nor did they explain why they needed three weeks to issue this minimal warning about SMS blasters which were first identified by an X user called ‘Radio Yakuza’ on April 12. Seiichiro Murakami, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, refused to answer questions about SMS blasters at a press conference on April 15. Further questions were asked in the upper house of Japan’s parliament on April 17. Another two weeks then passed, during which time Radio Yakuza and other members of the public identified six or seven different SMS blasters brazenly continuing to transmit smishing messages. They even photographed a specific vehicle that carries SMS blasters around Tokyo (pictured) despite its registration plate being changed.
Regular readers of Commsrisk will know I am cynical about the kumbaya rhetoric that dominates anti-scam efforts. A lot of yada yada about cooperation and raising public awareness gets followed by total silence when nobody sees any profit in dealing with demonstrably genuine instances of crime. East Asia is home to all of the leading countries at issuing public warnings about fake base stations and taking proactive action to remove them from the streets, but Japan’s authorities are barely capable of admitting the risk exists, never mind articulating the steps they will take to mitigate it. Members of the Japanese public have filled the void by investigating the extent of the problem and warning each other about it. Japan is not the only country with leaders who would rather bury their heads in the sand than devote resources to finding crimes that the public might not otherwise learn about.
For what it is worth, the full statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications can be found here.
