Clients of Japan’s Monex Group targeted by impostors

Clients of Japanese online trading services provider Monex Group, Inc. (TYO:8698) have been receiving phone calls by an entity presenting itself as “Monex Coin Management” (マネックスコインマネージメント). The representatives of this entity have been soliciting clients of the broker to make use of an automated trading system.

These approaches have come to the attention of Monex Group and have resulted in a warning by the broker.

Monex Group notes that the Group itself and each of its group company do not have any relation with Monex Coin Management. The broker advises its clients not to respond to such solicitations.

Monex is indeed engaged in the virtual currency business, and it is perhaps this that has made it a lucrative target for scammers.

Let’s recall that, in April 2018, Monex Group announced the completion of the acquisition of 100% of the shares of virtual currency exchange Coincheck, Inc. On April 6, 2018, the broker confirmed earlier media reports that it would buy the Exchange, which was hit by a virtual currency theft in January 2018. The deal, which covers 1,775,267 shares in Coincheck, is valued at JPY 3.6 billion.

Monex noted back then that Coincheck had received a business improvement order from the Japanese regulator concerning the theft of cryptocurrency, NEM, as a result of unauthorized access to its system on January 26, 2018. But the broker said it would aim to build a secure business environment for customers by fully backing up Coincheck’s enhancement process. In particular, Monex stated its intentions to maximize the use of its expertise and human resources of business administration, system risk management, and customer asset protection system.

Earlier in January 2019, Coincheck, Inc. announced that it had registered with the Kanto Financial Bureau as a cryptocurrency exchange agency in accordance with the Payment Service Act, effective January 11, 2019.