Monday 19th July, 10:32 AM JST
SAITAMA —
Police in Saitama Prefecture are teaming up with local TV station
UHF to air a special live show warning against Japan’s growing
problem of “ore ore” telephone scams starting Monday. “Ore ore”
scams involve con artists calling an elderly person, claiming to be
a relative in trouble and requesting that money be transferred to
them immediately.
On the program, which will share with viewers locations that are
particularly prone to the fraud as well as how exactly the scheme
works, police will send faxes of reports they receive in real
time.
According to authorities, the number of reports of bank transfer
fraud has decreased nationwide by around 23.5% from the previous
year during the first half of the year, while the amount of money
lost has fallen 28.9% to about 3.06 billion yen. Of all incidents,
the number of “ore ore” scams ranked the most at 2.05 billion yen
and 1,480 cases.
Second was fraudulent billing at 854.6 million yen over 982 cases,
and third was financing fraud—a type of scam where a would-be
borrower deposits a small amount of money into the account of a
supposed money lender to prove their trustworthiness, only to have
the loan request rejected and deposit unreturned —at 98.6 million
yen over 187 cases.
Demographically, women in their 70s are most prone to falling for
“ore ore” scams, with women in their 80s and 60s following close
behind.