2 people arrested in suspected bullet train ticket fraud in Japan

Two people were arrested on suspicion of using stolen credit card information to buy and resell Shinkansen bullet train tickets, Tokyo police said Thursday, potentially representing a broader fraud operation.

Fraudulent ticket purchases through the JR Central website have totaled 870 million yen ($5.7 million) since January, and the pair are believed to be behind some of those transactions, according to police.

Liu Hu, a 33-year-old Chinese man, and Vu Thi Chinh, a 28-year-old from Vietnam, both residents of Kawaguchi, north of Tokyo, were arrested on suspicion of unauthorized electromagnetic recording and theft.

Police suspect that the two, in collusion with others, independently purchased train tickets illegally from station machines, which they sold to ticket resale companies.

The credit card details used for the purchase may have been obtained through a phishing website, it said.

Liu was arrested in early August on suspicion of illegally purchasing 18 tickets worth a total of 240,000 yen, while Chinh was arrested in mid-July on suspicion of allegedly purchasing 38 tickets worth 460,000 yen.

The police did not announce whether the two admitted the allegations.

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