A former international student has been arrested as the issuer of fraudulently obtained Shinkansen tickets, which were resold at gift certificate shops.
The arrested individual is Huang Hongda (23), a former international student of Chinese Nationality, residing in Osaka Prefecture. He is suspected of logging into JR Central’s online reservation service, “Smart EX,” between October and November 2023, using fraudulently obtained credit card information under other people’s names to generate QR codes for reservations and issuing 12 Shinkansen tickets from ticket vending machines at the station.
Police have previously raided four stores belonging to the the culprits’ gift certificate shop group in Osaka and Tokyo, arresting seven people involved in the purchase and issuance of fraudulently obtained Shinkansen tickets.
During questioning, Huang partially denied the allegations, stating, “I don’t remember clearly.”
