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Japan's first crackdown on organized phishing.

Police in Kyoto have arrested eight men in Japan's first crackdown on organized phishing. The men are suspected of belonging to a phishing ring which stole personal information from some 1,000 visitors to a fake Yahoo! auctions site.

Visitors were lured to the fake site through emails which were designed to look as if they had been sent from administrators of the genuine Yahoo! site. However, a URL in the email directed unsuspecting users to the fake auction site, where they were required to enter their IDs and passwords. The group collected these login details and used them to access the genuine auction site, putting a number of dummy items up for sale. Those who made seemingly successful bids on the items unwittingly sent their payments to the group's bank accounts - and of course, did not receive their goods.

The phishing ring is believed to have defrauded 700 people of around 100 million yen (approx. £474,000).

Watch out Don't be caught...