THE country’s criminal syndicates raked in US$920mil (RM3.6bil) from organised fraud last year, almost double the previous record in 2024, using a sophisticated, cross-border network of scammers, police said.
Organised fraud and scams are typical crimes orchestrated by the so-called “tokuryu” (“anonymous and fluid”) underworld – an emerging criminal force often seen as an alternative to Japan’s old-school yakuza gangsters.
Tokuryu ringleaders shrouded in anonymity are known to use encrypted messaging apps to manipulate often naive foot soldiers as expendable pawns, while keeping themselves untraceable.
Forms of such fraud include the classic “it’s me” scam, where perpetrators impersonate family members in trouble to extract money from the victim.
Elderly people can also be cajoled into using ATMs to get non-existent “refunds” of their insurance premiums or pensions, police have warned.
Last year, these forms of fraud cost Japan a record ¥141bil (RM3.6bil), nearly twice as much as the ¥71.9bil recorded in 2024, according to data published yesterday by the National Police Agency (NPA).
Some groups “base themselves overseas such as in South-East Asia, where the leadership remotely issues instructions to perpetrators in Japan,” the NPA warned.
Lately, fraudsters posing as policemen call targets and trick them into transferring money under the pretext of protecting their assets or probing their bank accounts, the police say. — AFP
