The National Police Agency has announced the results of a survey in which it asked members of the public to choose a new name for a crime commonly referred to as "Bank Transfer Fraud."
The crime, rife in Japan, is colloquially known as "ore ore sagi," meaning, "It's me, it's me, fraud." The name refers to the way fraudsters would typically call elderly relatives with children and pose as their son, by saying, "It's me," and wait for the victim to supply the name. The fraudster would then ask for urgent help and have money transferred to a bank account.
However, due to the ease with which police can trace bank accounts, recent examples of the scam have eschewed bank transfers in favor of cash handovers. According to police, up to 80% of such fraud cases now involve relatives being conned into handing large parcels of cash to purported intermediaries.
In response to the shift, police surveyed the public to select a new, more accurate name for the crime. The NPA said it received more than 14,000 responses.
According to police, although both "Fraud Using Parental Love" and "Fake Phone Call Fraud" were selected among the top answers, the most popular choice was "Mother, Help Me Fraud," TBS reported Monday.
© Japan Today
20 Comments
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wtfjapan
"learn some common sense" "dont be so gullible" fraud
brknarm
Ridiculous waste of time. Most people know this as "ore ore sagi" and they want to change it why?
Harry_Gatto
Unbelievable! The police here are pathetic, useless, an embarrassment to the government. The police should spend their time trying to catch the perpetrators rather than surveying for a new name for the crime.
cleo
Some oldies simply do not have the ears to hear. The police regularly visit old people's homes, community centres, etc., and give talks explaining how the fraud works and warning the old folk not to be conned, and at the end of the visit there's always one or two old-age perishers who pipe up that they would still stump up the money, just in case it really was Junior in trouble.
viking68
That the fraudsters changed from bank transfers to cash shows some improvement. Previously, the bank transfers were not chased down like they should.
It still happens to older people, so there is good reason to educate that growing populace.
cubic
Such a terrible name. Embarrassing.
Nessie
Ore ore "ore ore sagi" da.
Thunderbird2
They probably set up a task force to assess the public's views on the name of the crime, so taking manpower away from actually solving the crime.
Mirai Hayashi
instead of renaming the crime, why not toughen the penalties for the perpetrators of the crime and put in systems so that banks give a warnings to the elderly who try to wire transfer large amounts of cash into another account.
Craig Dandridge
More evidence that Japanese government officials should never be allowed to name anything...
WilliB
That is ridiculous. "ore ore" is just fine. Every second these clowns spend sitting on their butts thinking of a new name for a crime instead trying to do something against it is waste taxpayers money.
sillygirl
LAME.
Goals0
@mirai
The point is that this has been done. So the criminals have changed their modus operandi.
missbatten
I'm surprised they haven't yet held a competition to choose a cute mascot character...
gubijin
So, by changing the name, will the number of crimes be lesser?
Moonraker
On a larger scale forcing money out of bank accounts into consumption is just the same as the Abe government wants to do. In that respect, the fraudsters and the government have the same aim to steal from the oldies.
timtak
Yes.
Because the people making the phone calls are probably not using the "ore ore" ("its me, its me...") line as much as the "Mum, you have got to help me..." line so since the perps do not use the former, the mother do not make the connection with the crime. By changing the name to the most common line used in the fraud they hope to reduce the number of crimes.
JustPassinBy
In Japanese kaasan tasukete sagi
The official name of the crime is furikome sagi
Gobshite
Is there not a comedy section on JT?