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Japanese Poker Player Caught in Spam Scandal

August 1, 2013

Masaaki Kagawa, a high-stakes Japanese player, has been arrested after being suspect of running a scam involving malware. Kawaga and eight other players were arrested in Japan by the Chiba Prefectural Police. The group has been accused of distributing spam via emails that included links to download Androis Enesoluty.

This download included a Trojan horse virus that could and did steal data from Android devices, sending it over a remote server. The malware is thought to have collected about 37 million email addresses from the 810,000 contacts lists it detected on infected devices. The whole point of the scam was to reroute users to a fake online dating site, Sakura, at which you could then sign up for a fee.

Kagawa participated in a Super High Roller Reload tournament in 2012 in Monte Carlo, a €98,500 NLH event. The 38 registrants were separated into two divisions, the whales and the pros. Kagawa was put into the whale group because of his wealth, but unfortunately, now it seems he may have come by all that money immorally. Fifty-year-old Kagawa had amassed a total of $1.62+ million in online poker winnings by 2012.

The other eight players are associated with his company Koei Planning. Vikram Thakur, Symanatec Security Response principal research manager, who discovered the scandal commented to the Japan Daily Press, “The mobile malware was just a step towards his real scheme, which was to send out spam about his dating site and get people to sign up over there and not really get any service.”

Written by Maria · Filed Under Poker News 

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