Over the last four years alone, two Japanese swindlers earned over $10 million on the personal information black market. They are, in fact, its founders.
Managers of a research firm, Akira Niihara and Junji Hisamatsu were arrested on claims of unlawful receipt and dissemination of private information.
The two men began their illegal activities in 2003. They found accomplices in offices and companies that interested them, bought the information they needed, and then resold it on the black market. The main buyers of stolen information were advertising agencies and private investigators.
During their illegal activities, the opportunistic Japanese men bought up the data of practically all governmental institutions as well as large companies. For example, there were cases of employees of the country’s largest telecommunications operators - NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI and Softbank Mobile – being fired after it was discovered that they sold clients’ personal information.
On average, Akira and Juji bought their “products” for 10,000 Yen to 30,000 Yen per one personal information record, meaning for $120-360, and then resold it for twice as much – at least $250 per “person.” Over the last four years of running their fraudulent scheme, the two men made about $10,200,000.
The accused assert that their business became profitable only after Japan passed a law about the protection of personal information. The new law not only failed to obstruct the “businessmen’s” activity, but on the contrary, helped them to create an organized underground market.
Comment by Senior Analyst at InfoWatch Nikolai Fedotov: «I very much doubt that the prices cited are correct, that ONE RECORD cost hundreds of dollars. I’ve never heard of prices like that. The current “record holder” of the black market is a bank card dump with a pin code. This lot could be sold for a couple of hundred dollars, but only because it can give you instant cash of a thousand or more dollars.
But what kind of personal information costs $250? How much money can it bring you? What do you have to do to a person to get that kind of money out of him?
I think that the prices cited for personal information are not for one record, but for a thousand records or a database».
