TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police believe that a dispute within a fraud ring led to the confinement and assault of a male member in Kunitachi City earlier this year, reports TBS News (Sept. 7).
In February, Tsubasa Ito, 21, allegedly worked together with two other persons in abducting the victim into a vehicle on a road. The trio then repeatedly beat him before obtaining a bag containing cash.
The victim suffered injuries that required one week to heal over the entirety of his body during the incident, which lasted into the day following the abduction.
Ito admits to the allegations. “We took him all the way to the mountains, beating him all along the way,” the suspect told police, according to TV Asahi (Sept. 7).
Posing as relatives in distress
Ito and the victim are believed to be members of a fraud ring that preys on elderly victims by posing as relatives in distress on the telephone, a scam known as ore ore sagi, or “it’s me” fraud. According to police, the money obtained by the suspect is believed to have come from a successful crime committed by the victim.
Police are now searching for the other two persons believed to have been involved in the crime.
