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fraud

Japanese man pretends to visit Muji stores 5.62 million times in six weeks, gets arrested again

Police say fraudster virtually visited Muji branches on three continents without ever leaving his Hokkaido home.

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Japanese government worker fired for lying about having LESS education than he really does

College graduate said he only graduated from high school, loses job he held for 38 years.

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Hokkaido man arrested for pretending to visit Aeon shopping centers 2.7 million times

And so ends the Great Aeon Loyalty Point Heist of ’18.

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Real fashion police: Con man arrested in Tokyo, police tipped off by ill-fitting suit

Crime doesn’t pay, but looking good apparently does.

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Ludicrously unbelievable diet product claims to convert beer and chicken into water

New breakthrough boldly defies both science and common sense.

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Video shows what may be Japan’s most artless scam artist launch herself into a stopped car【Video】

Collision is low-speed even by human running standards.

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Japanese arcade owner arrested for allegedly rigging crane games to be unwinnable

Japan’s first-ever crane game fraud investigation claims arcades used secret setting so prizes could only be won in employee demonstrations.

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Woman pours Pepsi into two ATMs to withdraw money, doesn’t get it

Not satisfied with simply robbing a victim of her money, some fraudsters decide to add insult to injury.

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Fake monks targeting foreign visitors to Japan?

Mock monks after your money? On layman‘s terms.

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Japan’s “crying politician” found guilty of fraud

The case of what was arguably Japan’s weirdest political scandal finally comes to a close.

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Tragic toy car accident in China leaves nation divided【Video】

Video footage showing the aftermath of a collision between an infant’s electric ride-on toy car and an upper-middle-aged woman has split public opinion between both sides.

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Police in China raise stakes on cybercrime with playing cards featuring wanted fugitives

Next time you play Go Fish, do it with 54 of Binyang’s most wanted.

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Man arrested for scamming millions of yen with complaints of “soggy bread”

Soggy bread is the pits. A great sandwich is equal parts texture and taste, so there’s no greater let-down when your bread feels like a freshly opened bucket of tile grout.

Actually, forget that. A bigger let-down is when someone exploits our shared hatred of soggy bread for their own personal gain. That’s what Tokyo Metro Police are suspecting Takashi Ishimoto of doing by making fraudulent complaints of damp sliced bread and raking in an estimated 30 million yen (US$251,000) from unsuspecting retailers in the process.

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Another fake bank discovered in China, inability to withdraw money dead give-away

In less than half a year since a counterfeit bank was discovered in Nanjing, China, the founder of another fake bank has been arrested in Shandong Province. Although not quite as sinister as the previous unlicensed money lenders, this suspected fraudster seemed not so much evil as just stubbornly convinced that he could run a financial institution despite not knowing certain core concepts of banking such as allowing your customers to withdraw money from their accounts.

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Japanese woman arrested after drugging dates with chocolate, robbing them blind

Although online dating services allow you to peruse profiles of potential paramours from the comfort of your home, they can also be a prime opportunity for fraudsters who pray on the lonely. Last month, for example, we took a look at a ring of dating sites which claimed 2.7 million “users,” only one of whom turned out to be an actual female.

Thankfully, a man from northeastern Japan who joined a dating site actually got to go out with a real girl, and probably thought she was quite the catch, seeing as how she’s decades younger than him and a medical student. Regardless of whether he was looking for something serious or just a fun dinner out, we imagine he was having a great time right up until she drugged him right there in the restaurant and robbed him blind.

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From shady trash collectors to “compensated dating” – 5 crimes peculiar to Japan

Japan is often perceived as a safe country. The nation of 127 million people boasts some of the lowest rates in the world for serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and rape. In addition, Japan continually ranks high on the Global Peace Index. And while it may sometimes seem like stalking and crime against children is rampant in Japan (the stalking rate hit a record high of 22,823 this year, up from 21,000 in 2013), this perception comes largely from widespread media exposure. In the U.S., for example, it is estimated that 6.6 million people are stalked per year.

While serious crime may not rank as high as in other developed countries, there are plenty of the other offenses that Japan excels at, and the country has its share of unscrupulous nationals. These are the things you probably haven’t heard so much about. Today we look at five crimes, some of them strangely Japan-specific.

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Our Japanese reporter offers up some safety advice for anyone traveling to Southeast Asia

‘The other day, I felt a tap on my back while at a Japanese-style shopping mall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I turned around and there was a beautiful, wide-eyed woman smiling at me. She asked me a favor in broken English: “I don’t have any friends in this city, and I’d like to hear more about Japan. Won’t you get dinner with me?”

I was surprised at myself by my cold reaction–“Ah, not another one.” Despite my efforts to ignore her, she continued pestering me, this time asking how long I was planning to stay in Cambodia. When I responded, “I’ve lived here for over 15 years, she promptly disappeared with a creepy cackling noise.’

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Website under investigation for selling fake diplomas

With the price of higher education skyrocketing in the west, student debt a growing problem for new graduates, and the increase of well-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, many people are finding that going to university just isn’t really worth it these days. But what if you could still get a degree without devoting all that time and effort, and without coming out of it with a lifetime’s worth of debt?

As it turns out, a website in China has been offering fake diplomas for a number of well-respected universities around the world, for only a fraction of the cost of four years of tuition!

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Fukuoka chicken restaurant in legal trouble for trying to “multiply” good workers

Securing a quality labor force in any workplace is difficult, but it’s especially tricky in the restaurant business. The demanding nature of the job and younger, sometimes less dedicated, employees often means a high turnover rate. However, one small chain of yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurants felt they had the solution.

When an employee was doing a truly great job, their manager would approach and ask them “How about we make you into two people?” That might sound like an excellent proposition for any busy worker, but as is often the case with magical offers, the reality is often illegal.

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Japanese people increasingly report getting spammed by Mom

For years the increasing elderly population of Japan has been under attack by scammers posing as their sons and daughters. In what’s called the “oreore sagi” (Hey, it’s me! Con) the scammer calls on the telephone and poses as the victim’s child asking them for an emergency load due to an accident or trouble at work.

Now it seems the fraud is on the other foot as younger smartphone users have been reporting unusual emails from dear old Ma asking them to click on a link. However, an entertaining bright side to these attempted crimes can be found too. One blogger eloquently put it: These junk mails are fascinating in that they can be quite elaborate and yet also look really half-assed at the same time.

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