TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 29-year-old man in an increasingly common type of fraud in which the suspects pose as members of a banking association, reports TV Asahi (May 11).
Police have accused Naoki Oishi in the swindle of 1.08 million yen in cash from a 74-year-old woman living in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture.
In carrying out the crime, a person working together with Oishi falsely claimed to be an employee of a department store over the telephone and told the woman that her bank card was being abused by a third party. The woman then handed over a number of cards.
At some point thereafter, Oishi arrived at the woman’s residence and presented a fake document that showed he was from the Japan Banker’s Association. The woman subsequently provided him with the personal identification numbers for the cards. Another person then withdrew the cash from an ATM.
“I was invited by an unknown man I met at a pachinko parlor,” Oishi was quoted by the Takaido Police Station. “I received the instructions via [the smartphone app] Line.”
According to police, the number of such crimes has exploded since the beginning of the year, with 498 cases recorded between January and March, a jump by a factor of 16 over the same period the year before.