Billing scam suspected over surge in dubious int'l calls

I keep getting called by Japanese Political parties trying to get my vote... regardless that I cant vote, my number somehow seems to be readily available to them.

Now I wonder how these external parties are able to identify the telephone numbers of Chinese Nationals within Japan...

If you don't know the phone number, why else is there a voice message feature?

A Chinese woman in her 40s in Akita, northeastern Japan, was forced to pay 4.11 million yen ($39,000) into a bank account after answering a call from a number with nonexistent country code "+885" on Sept 10, investigative sources said.

She wasn't 'forced' to do anything.

I regularly get one-ring calls from places like New Guinea and Vanuatu. I block the numbers, but they always have new numbers. Quite annoying.