Remittance scams ("furikome sagi") in which swindlers dupe people into sending them money, appear to be rapidly rising in number. The National Police Agency reported 11,755 cases of remittance fraud involving ¥16.69 billion from January to June, for the worst first half-year period since 2004, when NPA statistics on this started. Arrests were made in 1,383 cases, or about 11 percent of the cases recognized by police.

In 2004, there were about 20,000 cases of fraud involving ¥28.4 billion. The following year the number of cases began to decline. Last year saw about 17,700 cases involving ¥25.1 billion. But if the trend set in the first half of this year continues, the number of cases in 2008 will easily exceed the 2004 record.

There are three types of remittance scams, all involving con artists using phones to contact their potential victims: "Ore Ore" (It's me) frauds, in which swindlers pretend to be relatives of the victims and have the latter remit money; refund frauds, in which swindlers pose as tax office or Social Insurance Agency workers telling victims that they will get a refund (swindlers tell their victims to go to ATMs and deposit money in their bank accounts in order to get a full refund, and often use cell phones to guide the victims); and demand-for-payment frauds in which swindlers convince victims to pay money "owed" them.

Many of the victims are elderly people and those living alone. The number of fraud cases could be reduced if the police, public officials, relatives, friends and neighbors paid more attention to such people and warned them about such scams.

The NPA and the Justice Ministry are considering making cell phones inoperative near ATMs and prohibiting the use of ATMs by people wearing sunglasses and hats, as swindlers often do. Such measures seem unrealistic, however. Prohibiting the use of cell phones near ATMs could prevent people from calling the police during a robbery, and it would be difficult to enforce a "no sunglasses, no hat" rule. It is hoped that the police and Justice Ministry come up with more realistic, effective measures.