Japanese man arrested for selling hacked Pokémon Sun data

Nintendo and Pokémon fans know how seriously the respective companies take hacking, modding and anything in that area. That’s why it’s no surprise to hear someone who decided to flirt with those activities has found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

A 32-year-old man in Japan has been arrested for their hacking escapades. The man was hacking save data for Pokémon Sun and then selling it online, which is in violation of Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

The “cyber patrol” unit of police in Japan were snooping around online and discovered multiple listings for Pokémon games that were associated with hacked save data. This caused the cyber patrol to look deeper into the seller to get his information, which eventually led to Nintendo getting involved, and then finally the arrest.

It was confirmed that the man was selling ROMs, and Nintendo invested those ROMs to confirm that they were indeed hacked. The man was modifying these ROMs and then selling them for $35 a piece online. During the arrest, the police also seized the man’s computer and 37 different games, but the specific games were not mentioned.

According to the law associated with the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the man could serve up to 5 years in prison and fees of over $33k.