Dogs and their owners paraded down streets in Tokyo on Monday to help prevent people from becoming victims of frauds in which swindlers make phone calls pretending to be relatives asking for money.

Some 20 dogs, dressed in costumes bearing messages telling elderly people not to answer the phone, walked with their owners in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward at the request of the Metropolitan Police Department's Ebara Police Station, which is located in the ward.

Police officials said they asked the dog owners to give elderly people tips for identifying suspicious phone calls when they saw them walking the dogs.