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.