An 84-year-old woman in Tokyo has been swindled out of around ¥70 million ($632,000) after she was told to send money to avoid problems related to a nursing home establishment, police said Wednesday.

According to the police, a man pretending to be a real estate company employee called the woman last June and told her she had won the right to a place in a nursing home. He then asked if she would allow another person to take her spot.

After she accepted, another man claiming to be an official at the nursing home called her and said that having another person take her place was a crime. He said she should send him money to avoid being investigated for not having disclosed income, and that the money would be returned at a later date.

In the period to December 2017, the frightened woman used a delivery service to send amounts ranging from ¥300,000 to ¥10 million on 10 occasions to addresses specified by the man who had claimed to work for the nursing home, the police said.