If you can’t beat ’em…

Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, government, and financial institutions, the problem of special fraud (tokushu sagi) is still rampant in Japan. This is where fraudsters pose as family members, police, rock stars, baseball players, astronauts, and more via telephone or social media to convince people to give them money by bank transfers or by handing it over directly to bagmen.

And not only has the problem not shown any sign of weakening, but it appears to be evolving in strange ways. This new development was discovered with the arrest of a 73-year-old resident of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, for his involvement in a special fraud scheme.

On 2 June, the man posed as a police officer and went to an 88-year-old woman’s home in Kasugai City to pick up two of her bank cards. Prior to that, an accomplice had called her on the telephone, also claiming to be a police officer, and told her that a large amount of money used in illegal activity has been transferred to her account and they needed to confiscate it. After his arrest, the man said this wasn’t his first time acting as a bagman.

▼ Bagmen are the lowest rung on the fraud ladder since they’re always the ones caught holding the bag.

This case took a strange turn when it was also revealed that he himself was once the victim of special fraud and lost about 120 million yen (US$815,000) in a similar scheme involving a fake police officer claiming he had illegal funds in his account. Police are investigating whether the same group that stole his money scouted him afterward, knowing he was in need of money.

Online comments were amazed by the degree to which fraud has affected this man’s life in his senior years, but stopped short of expressing much sympathy since he did take it upon himself to become a part of the problem.

“Fraud has completely destroyed his life.”
“What kind of life is that?”
“They’re squeezing him dry.”
“He made the choice to recoup his money through fraud, so I have no sympathy for him.”
“I guess he felt he had nothing left to lose and went all in.”
“They’ve started recycling their victims. Zero waste.”
“How do people still fall for this? There are posters everywhere, and they always talk about it on TV.”

It always boils down to numbers and probabilities when it comes to fishing for fraud victims. And even if there’s a 0.01 percent chance of finding someone unaware of special fraud, that’s still about 10,000 potential targets in Japan. The only way to lower those odds is to continue sounding the alarm to this problem so everyone is aware of the signs, while also keeping up with the evolving tactics of the thieves themselves.

Source: Chunichi Shimbun, Jiji.com, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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