TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested two men, including a member of a yakuza criminal syndicate, for allegedly deceiving a third man into sending cash to a vacant apartment in the capital last year.
In July of 2024, Masahiro Yamashita, a 44-year-old leader within the Sumiyoshi-kai, and fellow gangster Hironobu Iwakiri, 35, are suspected of conspiring to deceive a man in his 60s living in Shizuoka Prefecture out of 3 million yen in cash.
“Your phone has infected someone else’s phone with a virus and you will need to pay insurance premiums,” the victim was told over the telephone. The pair then had him send 3 million yen to a vacant apartment in Nerima Ward.
They then scheduled a viewing of the apartment through a fellow real estate company owner and had someone collect the cash.
Police have not revealed whether the two gangsters admit to allegations of fraud.
The scam is referred to as tokushu sagi, meaning specialized fraud. Perpetrators of this crime target a victim over the telephone and impersonate an authority figure or relative to defraud money from them.
Police are investigating the possibility that Yamashita and his associate may have been involved in around 80 cases of this type of fraud using similar methods, resulting in losses of approximately 1.1 billion yen.
Police said the two suspects made reservations for viewings of vacant residences on a website used by real estate agents through a male realtor, who was indicted on charges of aiding and abetting attempted fraud in a separate case.
It is believed that they misused information such as the location of the key boxes containing spare keys. Another person who cooperated with them then received the stolen money.
