The amount of money swindled in special fraud cases in Japan from January to July was ¥72.21 billion, surpassing the amount for the whole of 2024, at ¥71.88 billion, which had been the worst annual record, police data shows.

Of the seven-month total, two-thirds involved "fake police" fraud cases in which offenders posing as police officers swindled their targets out of money, with the value of damages reaching ¥48.19 billion, according to the data released by the National Police Agency on Monday.

The number of remittance and other special fraud cases recognized by Japanese police in the January to July period jumped 44.9% from a year before, to 15,583, according to the police data.

The number of younger victims is increasing, with those in their 20s and 30s accounting for nearly 40% of the total recognized fake police cases in the seven-month period.

In many fake police cases, offenders pretending to be police officers instruct targeted individuals to transfer their entire assets online by deceiving them into believing that the "police officers" need to check all of their money as part of an investigation, such as money laundering, if they want to avoid being arrested. In such cases, the amount of damage tends to be huge.

Many fraud groups are based overseas. In one case, 29 extradited Japanese nationals were arrested last month by police in Aichi Prefecture on suspicion of involvement in phone scams conducted from Cambodia.

In most of these cases, the victims are guided to communicate with the offenders via social media after receiving international phone calls.

The NPA is advising the public to use apps that restrict incoming international calls to prevent them from becoming victims of such fraud.