TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a fraud group suspected of using names from school year books to swindle hundreds of victims over the past year, reports TBS News (Apr. 20).
On Wednesday, Kazuhiro Takechi, a 36-year-old resident of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and six other persons are alleged to have attempted to swindle an elderly woman from Kagawa Prefecture out of 3 million yen on the telephone. During the conversation, a caller impersonating her son falsely claimed that he needed money to cover a failed investment resulting from an embezzlement.
Police searching the ring’s headquarters, an apartment in Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, found about 40 mobile phones. Police also discovered school year books from institutions in 14 prefectures and containing a total of about 70,000 names. The ring is believed to have used the books to target victims, police said.
Over the past year, the suspects are believed to have swindled about 300 victims out of more than 900 million yen.
