KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police last week announced the arrest of five Japanese men for allegedly committing fraud and other crimes from a base in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 5).
The suspects were believed to be a part of ring that specializes in tokushu sagi, which is a type of fraud carried out on the telephone by a caller impersonating an authority figure or a victim’s relative.
Three suspects — including Kenjiro Kimura, 37, Takahiro Inoue, 34, and Katsuhito Yamaguchi, 29 — were arrested on suspicion of computer fraud. They were accused of conspiring with others to impersonate city officials defraud a woman in her 60s in Sagamihara City out of about 1.03 million yen by falsely telling her that she was eligible to receive a refund for medical expenses if she made a transfer via an ATM.
Meanwhile, Hajime Hatanaka, 40, and Takayuki Ukai, 42, are suspected of posing as police officers and attempting to defraud a woman in her 70s from Ichikikushikino City out of cash last December.
Police have not revealed whether the five suspects admit to the charges.
Manual-like document with Japanese names
According to police, Thai authorities detained the five men on suspicion of illegal residence in Thailand last December. Prefectural police later dispatched about 15 investigators to Thailand to transfer the five men. They were then arrested on board an aircraft upon arrival in Japanese airspace.
According to the Organized Crime Control Division, the suspects utilized two bases, which are villa-like buildings. Thai authorities seized several smartphones, tablet computers and a manual-like document with Japanese names and phone numbers.
Prefectural police are continuing the investigation.
The National Police Agency is working with various countries to crack down on fraud groups based overseas. In 2024, police departments in Ibaraki, Saitama, Kanagawa, Gifu, Osaka and Saga prefectures and Tokyo transferred a total of 50 people from Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand. The deported suspects were accused of fraud, theft and other offenses.
