The interim report by the United Nation panel released on Thursday, fingered North Korea as responsible in one of the biggest ATM fraud cases in the world. The panel reported that a case in which over N6billion naira which is about ¥1.86 billion was withdrawn fraudulently from ATMs in Japan in 2016, might have been done by the North Korea government, the Japan Times reported.
The Japan Times in their report said the cash was withdrawn all at once early on May 15, 2016, from ATMs at convenience stores in 17 prefectures including Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka, through the use of counterfeit credit cards made with customer information from South Africa’s Standard Bank.
The report also added that the government told a panel of the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea that some 260 people were arrested in the case as of July 9 ATM fraud this year.
The interim report did not mention specifically how North Korea might have been involved in ATM fraud.
The panel is conducting investigations on suspicion that North Korea took part in 35 cyberattacks against financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges in 17 countries, including the Standard Bank case.
Elsewhere in the report, the panel said North Korea is suspected of having earned some $2 billion through cyberattacks to finance its weapons of mass destruction program.
As part of North Korea’s cyberattack methods, the panel cited attacks against financial institutions through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system and thefts of cryptocurrency via attacks on exchanges used for such assets and their users, the Japan Times had reported.