TechFlow news, on October 21, according to the Nikkei, Yuta Kobayashi, a 26-year-old man, was arrested by a joint task force composed of Japan's National Police Agency Cyber Special Investigation Unit and police forces from nine prefectures including Saitama Prefecture.
Kobayashi is believed to be the ringleader of the group, who used the anonymous cryptocurrency "Monero" for money laundering involving more than 100 million yen (667,100 USD). However, police successfully identified Kobayashi by tracing Monero transactions. According to authorities, this marks Japan's first case of identifying a suspect through analysis of Monero transactions.
Between June 2021 and January 2022, Kobayashi and his gang conducted approximately 900 illegal transactions using credit cards registered under other people’s names, suspected of defrauding over 2.75 million yen. The stolen credit card information was mostly obtained via phishing websites and fraudulent emails.
Police have so far arrested 18 members of the gang. The group recruited members through "open dark" posts on social media and communicated using highly secure messaging applications.
