Masaaki Kagawa is a professional poker player and is well known on the circuit. He hails from Japan and is a popular face in Japan. However, he was in the news for all the wrong reasons as Japanese police recently arrested him for fraud.
Masaaki Kagawa is accused of promoting and deceiving users to download Android malware that brought back personal information to Kagawa and his associates, who later used it as a launch pad for fraudulent dealings.
Japanese police raided IT firm Koei Planning in Tokyo, where Masaaki Kagawa is listed as the president. The firm was responsible for promoting a malware app called Android Enesoluty. Symantec, a company that specializes in detecting malware and protecting companies from attacks, confirmed that once users installed the app, the malware would quickly collect all data that was stored on the device and then transfer them back to Koei Planning’s servers.
The data specifically targeted email addressed and contact details from these devices. The malware campaign was run on a large scale and Symantec reports that over 810,000 Android devices were infected and more than 37 million e-mail addresses were stolen.
Once these email addresses were obtained, the team at Koei Planning launched a marketing campaign that targeted these email addresses. They sent out emails promoting a fraudulent dating website and encouraged users to pay cash to avail premium services. The marketing malware campaign was extremely successful as it brought in over $3.9 million in revenue.
Symantec confirmed that the malware campaign has now ended and Kagawa along with 8 other associates have been charged and arrested. A statement from Symantec on Kagawa said
His passion for taking chances and risks has paid off in the game of poker, but it’s not looking good for his gambling with Android malware.
Kagawa has had reasonable success playing poker and according to the Hendon Mob won the third place in Jan at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship 2013 which took place in Melbourne, Australia. He is reported to have won over $300,000 but apparently this was not sufficient for the poker pro. He wanted to ride his luck with gambling and ventured into fraudulent dealings but soon found out that his luck only carried him so far.
While mobile apps from Android, Google Play and the Apple Store continue to grow in popularity, users are always advised to be careful in reviewing the app, researching the company and being cautious at all times. The golden rule to keep in mind when dealing with the internet is “If it is too good to be true, then it will most likely be false”.
