A bill aimed at helping victims of telephone fraud recoup their financial losses is on the Lower House floor. Although the bill, submitted by lawmakers, is well-intended, it is hoped that improvements in the bill will better help victims prevent their money from falling into fraudsters' hands.
In a typical case, a fraudster calls a target to persuade him or her to transfer money to the caller's bank account. The caller often pretends to be a relative in trouble and in need of quick cash. These so-called "It's me" scams are so rampant that people continue to lose as much as ¥10 million or more. Some fraudsters pose as officials of public organizations, such as a tax office or the Social Insurance Agency.
From June 2006 to May 2007, there were about 250 cases in which fraudsters posed as tax office workers, according to the National Tax Administration Agency. Victims were defrauded of more than ¥200 million. Last year the National Police Agency logged reports of about 18,500 telephone scams that cheated people out of about ¥24.9 billion. For their part, banks so far have frozen or closed bank accounts in more than 100,000 cases after they suspected phone scams.