Police have arrested Yuichi Suzuki, the 22-year-old leader of the ring, over the swindle of 2 million yen in cash from a woman, aged in her 70s and living in Yamanashi Prefecture, in April. The suspect admits to the allegations.
In carrying out the ruse, a member of the ring posed as a relative of the victim on the telephone in falsely claiming that they needed money to cover a finance-related problem, according to police.
In raiding the office, police seized graduation lists containing about 30,000 names from schools in 13 administrative divisions across the country.
The ring is believed to include more than 10 members. Since November of last year, the operation has collected more than 100 million yen from victims, police said.
