crime

81-year-old man foils telephone fraud attempt

31 Comments

Police said Wednesday that an 81-year-old man foiled a bank transfer scam by pretending to be taken in by it. One suspect, identified as Kenichi Kato, was arrested along with an accomplice for attempting to defraud the man of 3 million yen.

According to police, Kato used a trick known as "ore ore sagi" in Japanese, in which conmen call elderly people pretending to be a relative with money troubles and ask for an urgent bank transfer.

In this instance, police said Kato called the elderly man on Tuesday and pretended to be his son. He claimed to have lost a bag containing money belonging to his employer. What the fraudsters did not know was that their intended victim's son was a police officer stationed at Ogikubo. The elderly man informed his son who instructed his father to go along with the request and arrange a pick-up.

Officers were waiting near the elderly man's house when the two men came to collect the money on Tuesday morning and both were arrested at the scene.

© Compiled from news reports

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

31 Comments
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hahahaha love it!

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Nice!

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excellent work.

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Merry Christmas Kenichi!

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wonderful!!! I think he should get a reward for catching these guys!!!

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One old geezer who has some sense.

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great story. ha!

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Nice, very tactful!

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Very cool.

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Yay, granddad!

And while we're on the subject, allow me to re-post a previous comment about "ore-ore" scam.

"Let me tell you about a case that happened to my friends, a sensible couple in their 60s. One day, out of the blue, they got a phone call from a "police officer" informing them that their daughter (a med student living in another prefecture) had caused a car accident. They were instructed to transfer some Y700000 into a bank account as soon as possible, in order to secure her release. Naturally, they demanded to speak to her first. Their "daughter" was then put on the phone, but was so distressed that she couldn't answer any of their questions, and could only sob and cry faintly, "mother, help me!" Still suspicious, they called their daughter's cell phone number but failed to get through (they later discovered that the scammers had previously made so many nuisance calls to her that she switched it off completely).

In a state of panic, they called another relative to borrow some money. Fortunately this relative was clued-up about the "ore-ore" scams, and warned them to ignore the call and not send any money at all. Later on they managed to establish contact with their unsuspecting daughter, who had been out enjoying lunch with friends and had no idea what her poor parents had been through.

Strangely enough, they didn't bother reporting this episode to the police - probably out of embarrassment - which leads me to believe that this kind of scam is far more widespread than is popularly believed.

Be careful out there!"

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Do those conmen even research their prey- what if there was no "son" or the "son" had been dead, etc? Worse, what if the intended victim was a yakuza. It seems this is a hit or miss trick.

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Yes, Tessa, it is very common. Many old people I have spoken with have experienced it several times.

In the Edo Period these scum would have been cut down by the Bugyo magistrate and his merry men, or have I been watching to much Jidai-geki on TV?

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hat`s off to granpop!!!!!!

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Hi five to dad and son! Well done.

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81 years old and sharp as a tack!

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"It seems this is a hit or miss trick."

Uh. Of course. But if there is no penalty for missing, so what? One reason Kenichi was so stupid in the endgame is that once you reel in a big fish, things always work out.

That is why this 81 year old is so great. He conned the con man. He was able to take some risks to put this guy away. He was a good citizen. Most people would have just hung up and let the guy bother someone else.

Hope the judge gives Kenichi double the smacking for bothering this old guy.

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I hope I'm that sharp at 81, alive even!

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Granddad what are you doing?

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. Two less con men ruining christmas for a family. .

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This is what we need just before Christmas Day...knowing that some good is being done out there! Congrats to the old boy and his son!

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This happened to my wife (before we got married). She was at home when the call arrived, and it was a woman pretending to be her sister. They were suspicious, and asked a few questions to prove her identity. The criminals knew her name, her sister's name, her mother's name, but when asked what her mother's maiden name was, they immediately hung up.

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Good. Catch them all.

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Yay! This has made my day! Suffer Kenichi you loser!

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Makes me ssmile for I am 80+ yrs of age. Yes made it that far in life, still drive a car to ride a sportbike all since 1946 & never had an automotive accident of where I was in the wrong.

Some of us old ones are not as stupid as some think, but this chap did a lovely job.

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Preying on the elderly is one of the worst crimes of all. Yay! for sticking it to them!

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Right on, Ojiisan... Show the 'ole funky dudes where it's at!

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There are many permutations to this kind of scheme. My wife answered a call a few weeks ago from a guy who claimed that he was from the Shibuya police station and they had a report of me (a foreigner) molesting somebody. Caller ID showed that the call was from a pay phone. My wife just said well he's here, I'll give him the phone and the guy hung up. We reported it to the police.

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This made me smile so much! Nice work, ojii-chan!

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Props to the 81-year-old man! Wait, if it's so easy to catch these people, why don't all police in each district publish one of their ubiquitous posters with a hotline where they can do the same: run stings on the scammers?

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And for trying to defraud the elderly - DEATH PENALTY!

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Nice job! That is so called sting operation??

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