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Tokyo cops: Data company sold register of names to fraudsters

Takashi Fukuda
Takashi Fukuda

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a data management company for assisting a fraud group, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 24).

Police arrested Takashi Fukuda, the 39-year-old president of Japan Response, located in Chiyoda Ward, for allegedly selling 50 lists of names from graduate associations to a fraud group for seven million yen.

In March of last year, a 31-year-old male member of the group used the information to locate an 82-year-old woman in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture and defraud her out of 2.9 million yen.

The bust of a company for such a sale is a nationwide first, police said.

Fukuda, who has been accused of knowing the intended purpose of the information, denies the charges, telling police he had no knowledge of the criminal intent, according to TBS News (Feb. 24).

Known as a type of fraud under the name ore ore (meaning “it’s me”), such scams usually involves a fraudster posing as a relative of the victim on the telephone and requesting large sums of money.

Between September of 2014 and June of last year, the fraud ring is believed to have used information provided by Japan Response in the swindling of approximately 20 people out of roughly 100 million yen.