Participated in a High-Paying Part-Time Job Scam via Social Media
Surge in Elderly Victims Prompts Review of ATM Usage Limits
A Korean university student in his 20s was arrested by local police in Japan after attempting to impersonate the son of an elderly woman and defraud her of a large sum of money.
Recently, Fuji News Network (FNN), Nittere News, and other outlets reported that Japanese police arrested a 24-year-old Korean national, identified as Kim, on suspicion of attempted fraud.
Kim, a senior at a university, called a woman in her 70s living in Ota Ward, Tokyo, together with accomplices on December 8, pretending to be her son. According to investigations, he claimed he urgently needed cash to pay off a debt and demanded 6 million yen (approximately 57 million won).
However, after hanging up, the woman found the call suspicious and immediately reported it to the police. The police conducted a stakeout near the agreed-upon cash handover location and arrested Kim at the scene when he appeared.
During police questioning, Kim initially denied the charges, stating that he had applied for a one-time high-paying part-time job he saw on a social networking service (SNS). He also reportedly said, "I thought it might be a 'yamibaito' (criminal part-time job), but I believed it only involved delivering documents." The police consider Kim to be the direct perpetrator and are investigating the criminal organization suspected of directing the crime, as well as the possibility of additional victims.
In Japan, where the population is aging rapidly, phone scams targeting the elderly continue to occur. In response, the Japanese government and local authorities have stepped up preventive measures.
Earlier this year, the National Police Agency of Japan announced that, in light of a surge in special fraud cases such as voice phishing, it was considering limiting the daily cash withdrawal and transfer limit at ATMs for people aged 75 and older to 300,000 yen. If implemented, this would mark the first time that ATM usage limits, previously left to the discretion of financial institutions, would be uniformly regulated.
Local governments are also taking action. Osaka Prefecture recently passed an ordinance limiting the transfer limit to 100,000 yen for people aged 70 and older who have had no ATM transfer history in the past three years, and prohibiting the use of ATMs while talking on a mobile phone. This is the first mandatory measure in Japan to prevent ATM use during phone calls.
Last year, the total amount lost to special fraud in Japan, where scammers impersonated family members or public officials to demand remittances, reached about 72.1 billion yen, with nearly half of the victims being people aged 75 and older.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
