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The story
A post appeared on a cybercrime forum claiming to sell roughly 101 million pieces of data said to be Rakuten member information, sparking concern over a possible leak on social media. In response, Rakuten Group issued a denial, stating “no fact of a data leak has been confirmed.” On 5ch, opinions clashed: some argued the figure itself isn’t unnatural given that Rakuten officially reports “over 100 million” domestic members, while others pointed to the sheer volume of phishing emails they receive and suspected “this has probably been leaking for a while.” Posts also expressed very real, practical anxiety over whether assets held at Rakuten Bank are safe.
Rakuten Group Denies Rumors of a Leak Involving Over 100 Million Members’ Data — “No Fact of a Data Leak Has Been Confirmed”
A post appeared on a cybercrime forum offering to sell roughly 101 million pieces of data said to be Rakuten member information, and concern spread on social media. There are fears of harmful effects such as leaked subscriber information for services including Rakuten Mobile, along with leaked personal data and fraudulent use.
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Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
So what would be a good response then?
Well sure, that's counting dogs, cats, goldfish, and dead people as members too.
It's already been leaking for ages, right?
I've got over 2 million points built up through investing, so this isn't a joke for me.
Since back then, huh
https://corp.rakuten.co.jp/about/assets/img/history/1997.jpg
If you're counting per card/account, isn't around 100 million about right?
People have multiple accounts each, so it's entirely possible.
Personally, given the sheer volume of spam I get at the address I registered with Rakuten, I think they've been leaking data for ages.
Then again, it could just be the same source sending stuff under different disguises.
It's not like Rakuten specifically is being targeted, so if outsiders could pull this off, every other bank would be in trouble too.
Your Rakuten Bank account is actually separate from your Rakuten account. Rakuten Bank doesn't send paper balance statements, so you should make sure your family knows how to access it, just in case.
Wait, you actually logged in?
That's worrying… please tell me that's a joke.
Just contact Rakuten directly about it. You'd want to know if someone really did log into your account, right?
Maybe I should move my money to MUFG or SMBC, since their security is supposedly tighter than Rakuten Bank's?
How do you know such detailed internal technical stuff?
It's possible the same people are just making tons of accounts each.
Rakuten officially states it has over 100 million domestic IDs.
https://corp.rakuten.co.jp/careers/services/
> Rakuten currently boasts over 100 million* members domestically. Going forward, we aim to expand the 'Rakuten Ecosystem' globally as well, delivering fun, convenient services to over 2.1 billion Rakuten Group service users worldwide.
It was only ever reported as 'a hacker claimed this,' so it's not technically fake news.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Rakuten’s official site states it has “over 100 million” members domestically, and within the thread, post #125 cites this very figure to argue that a scale of “100 million” isn’t inherently implausible. At the same time, readers can easily misread Rakuten’s statement that “no fact of a data leak has been confirmed” — this is standard corporate-PR phrasing indicating that nothing has been substantiated yet, not a definitive conclusion from an investigation that no leak occurred. The thread split into two camps, neither going beyond speculation: (1) those who see the huge figure as evidence the claim is fabricated or exaggerated, and (2) those who point to the sheer volume of phishing emails they receive daily as evidence that Rakuten’s data must have been leaking for a while already. It’s also worth noting that phishing emails themselves can stem from leaks at other companies or from indiscriminate spam campaigns, so they don’t actually prove a direct leak from Rakuten.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “Rakuten Group Denies Rumors of a Leak Involving Over 100 Million Members’ Data — “No Fact of a Data Leak Has Been Confirmed”.”
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