KANAGAWA (TR) – After police arrested Sayaka Takahashi, 26, on suspicion of fraud, she was captured by cameras in the back of a police car with medium-length blonde hair.
That wasn’t how one of her victims, an elderly woman in her 70s living in Yokohama City’s Izumi Ward, remembered her.
According to the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 7), an accomplice of Takahashi telephoned the victim at around 9:30 a.m. on November 4.
“You have been found to have been paying too much insurance,” the caller falsely said in posing as a staff member from the Izumi Ward office.
She later received another call, this time from a person posing a bank employee. “Please tell me your personal identification number and I will carry out the necessary procedure [for a refund]. One of our representatives will visit to collect your cards.”
Enter Takahashi, wearing a white collared shirt and dark wig. Upon her arrival at the residence, she collected two cards from the woman.
Sensing a problem, the victim alerted police on the night of November 4. However, a total of 600,000 yen had been withdrawn from the woman’s accounts.
During the investigation, police seized a wig, a white shirt and dark suit. Security camera footage showed Takahashi wearing the items inside a railway station.
“I did this other times,” the suspect told police.
