TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested four suspects in a Cambodia-based fraud group that is suspected of defrauding victims in Japan out of more than 3 billion yen, reports TBS News (Feb. 27).
According to police, Kento Yuasa, a 32-year-old company executive in Chuo Ward, and the other three suspects were involved in a ring that specializes in tokushu sagi, or specialized fraud.
This type of fraud is carried out on the telephone by a caller impersonating an authority figure or a victim’s relative.
In August 2023, Yuasa and the other suspects worked with others to pose as lawyers on phone calls from Cambodia to a woman in her 60s to defraud her out of approximately 17 million yen.
In carrying out the ruse, the suspects claimed that the woman was suspected of a crime involving her name and a nursing home.
The cash was collected by an accomplice at her apartment in Tokyo. Another accomplice then retrieved it from a public restroom before delivering it to Yuasa.
Yuasa is believed to be the leader of approximately 30 accomplices who receive swindled funds.
Between March and September 2023, the ring is believed to have defrauded 170 victims living in 35 administrative districts and prefectures out of a total of approximately 3.1 billion yen.
