Japanese police have arrested a 16-year-old boy for allegedly making scam calls as a member of a Myanmar-based fraud ring, sources said Saturday.
According to the Aichi prefectural police, the suspect is a high school student in the prefectural capital of Nagoya who returned to Japan after being taken into custody by Thai authorities.
After the teenager did not respond to voluntary police questioning scheduled for Monday and his whereabouts became unknown, the Aichi police tracked him down and found him Friday in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. They launched a compulsory investigation due to concerns that he might flee.
The boy allegedly conspired with suspects Shoki Ishikawa, 32, and Tomonari Yachi, 22, on Jan. 14 to defraud a man from Mie Prefecture who was on a business trip to the U.S. state of Oregon.
The three suspects are believed to have fraudulently obtained ¥9.9 million from the victim by by pretending to be from the Aichi police. They called the man and and said that his bank account was being used for crime and urged him to transfer the money.
According to the police, the teenager entered Myanmar via Thailand after he was recruited in early December 2024 by a man on Telegram who said he could introduce the teen to a job that could help him develop programming skills.
He made scam calls with about eight other Japanese individuals including Ishikawa, under instructions given by an Asian member. He returned to Japan after being placed under custody in mid-February.
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