FUKUOKA - Two Chinese men have been arrested on suspicion of remotely controlling a man's smartphone via a malicious app and using a payment service to fraudulently obtain trading cards, Japanese police said.
A series of similar incidents have been reported across Japan since August, and the arrest marks the first of its kind nationwide, according to the police.
The joint investigation team involving the Fukuoka, Hokkaido, and Hyogo prefectural police forces arrested the two men -- an unemployed 31-year-old from Osaka and a 33-year-old, who claims to be an electric vehicle repairman and whose address is unknown.
They allegedly conspired in September with one other person, believed to be the leader, to remotely control the smartphone of a man in his 60s from Hyogo Prefecture, who had been tricked into downloading a malicious app, and used an electronic payment service to fraudulently obtain trading cards worth about 570,000 yen ($3,600) from a toy store in Fukuoka.
