Rakuten Incident: The Problem with Rakuten's Points System
Rakuten formed partnerships with companies such as All Nippon Airways, AOL, and Asahi Shinbun, to setup a "Rakuten Super Points" campaign which was launched in early December 2005. Users could enter their membership numbers and click on banner ads to collect points. By visiting the URLs from the companies participating in the campaign, one single account could collect the equivalent of ¥2,000 in points. People started writing on blogs and bulletin board sites like 2ch and sharing lists of URLs where the campaign banners were being displayed. They also shared techniques for creating multiple accounts on Rakuten, on which they could collect points and purchase large quantities of items worth up to ¥2,000. Some 2ch users even developed software that could automatically create user accounts and collect points. This type of software became openly available, expediting the problem even more.
The Rakuten Terms of Use did not prohibit users from having multiple accounts, and additionally, the campaign did not impose a limit on the number of people that could acquire points. Then in January 9, 2006, Rakuten suddenly announced the suspension of the campaign. They then proceeded to subtract from the accounts all points that were collected though the campaign, whether they were legitimate or not. Users owning accounts where the points had already been used received an invoice via e-mail. On sites like 2ch, Rakuten was ridiculed with phrases like "Rakuten Fraud" or "Points Fraud".
Although from the following day Rakuten proceeded to restore the points that it judged as being legitimate, they never made public what decision criteria they used to identify accounts with legitimate points. Strong complaints against this mode of operation were reported on every page of the newspapers. In the end, Rakuten Ichiba sustained losses of around 50 million yen due to this incident.
Note: the Terms of Use of 'Rakuten Super Points' did prohibit the amalgamation of points from multiple accounts. It also stipulated that Rakuten reserved the right to remove any points collected by a member through unfair practices.
