Photo/Illutration The ChatGPT logo in an illustration captured on Jan. 22 (REUTERS)

The Metropolitan Police Department on Feb. 27 arrested three teenage boys on suspicion of using stolen IDs and passwords to log into Rakuten Mobile Inc.'s servers and sign up for thousands of mobile phone lines. 

The junior high school third-year students, who are 14 and 15, and the 16-year-old high school first-year student then sold approximately 2,500 of these illegally contracted lines to criminal groups, according to the MPD.

Cumulatively, they made around 7.5 million yen ($50,200) in cryptographic assets from the sales. Each line was sold for 1,000 to 3,000 yen.

The MPD shared that the 15-year-old from Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, told investigators that he "needed money to buy a game console."

Meanwhile, the 14-year-old from Tachikawa, western Tokyo, and the high school first year from Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, told investigators they “spent the money obtained on online casinos and other activities.” 

The three met through online games. 

According to the MPD’s cybercrime division, the three used the IDs and passwords of 11 Rakuten account holders to illegally access Rakuten Mobile’s servers from May to August in 2024 and contracted for a total of 105 mobile phone lines. 

However, the three had obtained a total 3.3 billion IDs and passwords for various services. This data was not exclusive to Rakuten.

Police said the trio's actions leading up to their arrest for violating the unauthorized computer access law and committing computer fraud began in December 2023; this was when they started purchasing IDs and passwords on the highly confidential Telegram communication app.

The 16-year-old told investigators he used the generative artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT to create a system to extract and share the Rakuten account data. 

The 14-year-old is believed to have devised the system, telling investigators, “I wanted to attract attention by devising a criminal scheme,” according to the MPD. 

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