The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a high-school student from the western Tokyo suburb of Chofu for allegedly perpetrating an "it's me" telephone scam that fleeced his victims out of roughly ¥400 million.
Police sources said the 17-year-old denied involvement in the scam as well as allegations that his role was to withdraw the cash from the victims' bank accounts. His arrest follows that of two other 17-year-old high schoolers believed to be acquainted with him.
The arrest was linked to the case of a 64-year-old man and his wife, 63, residents of the nearby city of Kokubunji, who were conned into transferring ¥1 million last August supposedly needed to help their son settle a dispute over getting a woman pregnant, the sources said.