Japanese man arrested for selling hacked Pokémon

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According to several reports in the Japanese media, Kawamatsu Kazuki, a 23 year-old unemployed Japanese man from the Minami ward of Nagoya, was recently arrested under Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act for alledgedly generating and selling hacked Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield, including both shiny Pokémon and Pokémon intended for competitive play. Under Japanese law, it is an offense to offer services to bypass technical limitation measures in software, including modifying the save data of video games.

According to Japanese police, Kawamatsu, over a one year period ending in November 2020, made over 1.15 million yen (a little under $USD 11,000) selling hacked Pokémon at prices starting around 500 yen ($USD 4.75) each. Kawamatsu was apprehended after apparently being caught having sold a hacked Sobble to a salaryman from Tokyo in April last year for 4400 yen ($USD 41.75).

While police and prosecutors have not been reported to have made any statements about what punishments Kawamatsu might face, article 21 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act provides for punishments including a maximum of 10 years in prison, or a fine of up to twenty million yen.

 

One of those terrible Pokemon poachers got blasted off again.

In all seriousness, this is ridiculous. It's the consumers' fault for spending so much on any Pokemon, especially if it's probably hacked. My nephew wanted to buy a mythical and I scolded him, as Prof. Oak would do.

 

It does make you think though, if people are willing to pay this much for Pokémon, is this a sign that the game needs to make it easier to get those Pokémon? They wouldn't be able to sell them for this much if there wasn't a demand for it.

 

that’s just messed up