Fraud cases in which offenders pretend to be police officers and swindle targeted people out of money under the pretext of investigation are increasing sharply in Japan, police data has shown.
The amount of money swindled in such fake police fraud cases totaled ¥38.93 billion ($258 million) between January and June, according to the data released by the National Police Agency on Thursday. The NPA is working with police departments across the country to alert people to this type of fraud.
The number of special fraud cases recognized by Japanese police in the first half of this year totaled a record high of 13,213, up about 50% from a year before, with the amount of losses shooting up by 2.6 times to ¥59.73 billion, also a record high.
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