The arrest of 29 Japanese nationals suspected of involvement in telecom fraud in a Cambodian stronghold has spread to many parts of Aichi Prefecture, the Kyodo news agency reported Sunday, residents of at least seven prefectures have been victimized. It is reported that the 29 people posing as the Nagano Prefecture police, the victims of telephone fraud.
The report said the affected areas included Tokyo, Tochigi Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture and Mie Prefecture. To this end, Tochigi Prefecture and other six county police set up a joint task force to further investigate. Statistics show that between February and may this year alone, these areas due to the fraud caused a total loss of about 1.4 billion yen (100 yen about 4.9 yuan) .
The police found during their investigation that the 29 people arrested appeared to be under the management of a“Star rating system”. The system of fraud involved in the amount of record and ranking, the formation of a similar“Performance assessment” of the competition mechanism. Those aged between 19 and 52 were required to make scam calls from morning to night to meet“Mission targets”.
In recent years, Japan’s domestic“Special fraud” cases surge, the social impact of bad. The so-called“Special fraud” refers to criminals impersonating relatives, enterprises and institutions, or falsely claiming to be refundable medical fees, etc. , to lure victims to pay cash or operate ATM transfers. More than 20,000“Special frauds” occurred in Japan in the past year, causing losses of more than Y71.8 bn, a record amount, NHK said, citing the Metropolitan Police. In the first half of this year, there were more than 13,000 cases with losses of more than 59.7 billion yen.
At the same time, the phenomenon of Japanese participating in overseas wire fraud is becoming more and more serious. Since 2019, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and other places have been exposed to Japanese fraud. The NHK analysis said that since around 2015, the Japanese police have continued to strengthen the fight against domestic fraud groups, these criminal gangs have moved to Southeast Asia.