On Monday, police arrested Hajime Matsuda for allegedly attempting to defraud the woman, an 83-year-old resident of Katsushika Ward, out of her bank cards.
“For part-time work, I got an offer from a person I don’t know to pick up the cards,” police quoted the suspect, who has been accused of attempted fraud.
According to police, the woman had been told on the telephone by a person posing as an employee from the Japan Banker’s Association that her bank cards were being abused by a third party.
That same day, the woman was scheduled to have an examination at a hospital. When she telephoned the hospital to cancel the appointment, she explained to an employee that she was meeting a person from the association to return her cards. The hospital employee then alerted police who arrested Matsuda.
Police believe that Matsuda is a subordinate member of a fraud ring that repeatedly targets elderly persons in similar scams.