A manhunt is underway for criminals who looted millions from
Japan’s cash machines nationwide in an hours-long heist, officials and reports
said Monday.
Armed with fake credit card
details from South Africa’s Standard Bank, the thieves hit 1,400 convenience
store ATMs in a coordinated attack earlier this month.
The international gang members,
reportedly numbering around 100 people, each made a series of withdrawals in
less than three hours, Japanese media said.
Their haul totalled 1.4 billion
yen ($13 million), according to the reports, with machines in Tokyo and Osaka
among those targeted.
It was not clear how the gang
made off with the equivalent of millions of dollars so quickly as the cash
machines usually limit withdrawals to 100,000 yen ($910) a day.
Japanese police declined to
confirm the robbery, but Standard Bank acknowledged the heist and put its
losses at around $19 million.
The bank said it was a “victim
of a sophisticated, coordinated fraud incident”.
“This involved the withdrawal
of cash using a small number of fictitious cards at various ATMs in Japan,” it
said in a statement.
Japan’s top-selling Yomiuri
newspaper said the lightning-fast raids began early on the morning of May 15, a
Sunday, when banks were closed.
That may have bought the
thieves enough time to pull off the robbery and leave the country before
authorities could act, reports said.
Japanese authorities are
expected to analyse footage of ATM security cameras and work with South African
authorities.
“Investigations are at a
sensitive stage and further information will be provided as appropriate,”
Standard Bank said.
It was believed that police had
no suspects in custody.
Similar robberies have occurred
in recent years, including a pair of heists totalling about $45 million that
saw a group of cyber thieves disable withdrawal limits on ATMs around the
world.
The machines were later raided
by street associates who used stolen security passcodes to harvest the loot.
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