Japan to Tighten Law to Prevent Mobile Phone Scams

Tokyo, March 24 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government adopted a bill to tighten the law against the fraudulent use of mobile phones at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, in response to a surge in investment fraud and romance scam cases. The bill calls for expanding mandatory identity confirmation to cover mobile phone subscriptions exclusively for data communications. Currently, mobile contracts for data communications only are not subject to the regulation and have been used in many social media fraud and other cases. Short-term visitors from abroad who purchase SIM cards for mobile data communications would not be exempt from mandatory identity confirmation. The bill would also allow mobile phone carriers to reject applications for too many mobile numbers for an individual, and enable police to check subscriber information if messaging apps are used in fraud cases. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]