A ring of 100 thieves coordinated the looting of 1,400 convenience store ATMs in Japan last week, draining $13 million from the cash machines in the hours-long heist, reported Agence Presse-France. Now an international manhunt for them is underway before they can strike again.
The thieves hits the ATMs on May 15, a Sunday, armed with fake credit cards from South Africa's Standard Bank and each made a series of withdrawals totaling 1.4 billion yen in less than three hours, Japanese media said. Machines in Tokyo and Osaka were among those targeted.
It wasn't clear how the thieves made off with so much cash so quickly as the ATMs usually limit withdrawals to 100,000 yen ($910) a day.
Japanese police still declined to confirm the robbery, but Standard Bank acknowledged the heist and put its losses at around $19 million.
The bank said it was a "victim of a sophisticated, coordinated fraud incident."
"This involved the withdrawal of cash using a small number of fictitious cards at various ATMs in Japan," it said in a statement.
Japan's top-selling Yomiuri newspaper said the lightning-fast raids began early on the morning of May 15, a Sunday, when banks were closed.
That may have bought the thieves enough time to pull off the robbery and leave the country before authorities could act, reports said.
Japanese authorities are expected to analyse footage of ATM security cameras and work with South African authorities.
"Investigations are at a sensitive stage and further information will be provided as appropriate," Standard Bank said.
It was believed that police had no suspects in custody.
Similar robberies have occurred in recent years, including a pair of heists totalling about $45 million that saw a group of cyber thieves disable withdrawal limits on ATMs around the world.
The machines were later raided by street associates who used stolen security passcodes to harvest the loot.
© AFP 2025