TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have re-arrested 13 male Japanese nationals previously deported from an overseas fraud base on suspicion of defrauding a senior citizen by posing as police officers, reports TBS News (May 27).
The suspects, who operated out of a fraud hub near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, were initially detained by local authorities and transferred back to Japan last month.
According to investigators, the 13 men targeted a man in his 70s living in Hyogo Prefecture. Placing calls from Indonesia, the suspects impersonated Japanese police officers and fed the victim a fabricated story, telling him, “You need to undergo a financial investigation regarding your assets.”
Believing the lie, the victim was tricked into transferring cryptocurrency equivalent to 9.5 million yen.
To make their elaborate ruse convincing, the syndicate went to great lengths. Police have confiscated fake Japanese police uniforms and counterfeit police badges, which investigators believe the suspects wore during video calls from Indonesia to gain the trust of their targets.
Tokyo police are continuing its investigation, suspecting that the ring has swindled over 114 million yen in total from victims across Japan using the same deceptive tactics.
