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April 26, 2025
 

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FRAUD

A team of lawyers head to the Osaka District Court on Tuesday to file a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, on behalf of their clients, who are victims of investment scams linked to fake advertisements on the social media platforms.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2024
Meta faces Japan lawsuits over fake ads linked to investment fraud
Those affected claim that the owner of Facebook and Instagram neglected to remove the ads from its social media platforms, which led to them being scammed.
The Consumer Affairs Agency is warning against fake websites that lure consumers into purchasing unrelated or counterfeit products.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 10, 2024
Consumer watchdog warns against fake electronics sites
The sites, often promoted via social media ads, are luring consumers into purchasing unrelated or counterfeit products.
Police in Osaka Prefecture arrested four people early last month for allegedly defrauding a "spot work" platform operator of about ¥680,000.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 6, 2024
Scammers in Japan take advantage of popularity of ‘spot work’
Police in Osaka Prefecture arrested four people early last month for allegedly defrauding a platform operator of about ¥680,000.
The National Police Agency has noted a major rise in online investment fraud cases, incidents of which have more than quadrupled in the first eight months of this year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024
Investment and romance fraud cases triple in first eight months of year
A total of 6,868 reports of scam cases involving losses amounting to nearly ¥88 billion ($600 million) have been reported, the National Police Agency said.
A male employee of Gunma Bank in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, allegedly swindled clients out of a total of ¥55.35 million ($377,000) by falsely claiming to exchange their old banknotes for new ones.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024
Gunma Bank dismisses employee over alleged ¥55 million scam
He allegedly took money from clients under the pretext of exchanging old banknotes for new ¥10,000 ones.
Counterfeit bills used by men who were arrested on suspicion of stealing cash under the guise of a gold transaction
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 9, 2024
Two Liberian men arrested for alleged fake gold deal in Tokyo
The two are charged with stealing ¥34 million from a 43-year-old secondhand goods dealer in Tokyo in November 2023.
Takaaki Saito enters the Metropolitan Police Department's Fukagawa Police Station in Koto Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 4, 2024
Trio trying to pay off supercar debt arrested for alleged fraud
The trio is believed to have created a total of 34 credit cards in the names of nine people using personal information they obtained.
Philippine authorities discovered at least three scam farms run by Chinese, Indonesian and Myanmar nationals, according a spokesman or the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 1, 2024
Philippines arrests over 150 foreigners in online gambling raid
Agents found dozens of people engaged in illegal activities on makeshift workstations inside a resort on the central island of Cebu.
Former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Megumi Hirose in the Upper House in April. She stepped down as lawmaker on Aug. 15.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 30, 2024
Ex-LDP lawmaker Hirose indicted over alleged pay fraud
She allegedly reported the wife of her public secretary as her second secretary although the wife did not perform any work in that capacity.
Since June, at least 10 gold bar scams, including failed attempts, have been confirmed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2024
Gold bullion scams targeting elderly people on the rise in Japan
Criminals posing as police officers on Line have been persuading people to convert money into gold and then leave it outside their homes.
Kyoto police say there have been scams targeting gold bars in recent months.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2024
Kyoto man scammed out of ¥100 million in gold bars
The self-employed man, residing in Kyoto's Kamigyo Ward, received a call in late June from a man claiming to be from a mobile phone company.
The Metropolitan Police Department holds a workshop on dealing with cybercrimes in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 20, 2024
Tokyo police expand team for initial cybercrime investigations
The team will focus on investigations pertaining to online fraud, distribution of indecent images of children and drug trafficking.
Popular commentator and journalist Akira Ikegami speaks about investment fraud on social media at the Aichi Prefectural Police in Nagoya in July.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2024
Japanese celebrities raising alarm over social media fraud
The amount of money stolen in social media investment fraud schemes between January-June rocketed about seven times from a year earlier, according to police.
What is known as real money trading in online games is rife with issues, including account hijacking and fraud.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 8, 2024
Man arrested over alleged fraud involving Sega's in-game money
The suspect allegedly collected money by offering to sell the in-game currency at one-twentieth of the listed price on "real money trading" websites.
A 28-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of deceiving a man she met on a dating app into paying her cash for sexually transmitted infection tests.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024
Tokyo woman arrested on suspicion of STI test fraud
Police said Misaki Watanabe asked a man to pay for tests before engaging in sexual relations, but ceased all communication after receiving the money.
The amount of money stolen in fraud cases linked to social media in the first half of 2024 exceeded that of the whole 2023, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024
¥66 billion stolen in Japan via online scams in first half of 2024
Of the investment fraud cases reported, 51.6% involved advertisements on social media platforms.
Upper House lawmaker Megumi Hirose enters her house in Tokyo after it was raided on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 30, 2024
Tokyo prosecutors raid LDP lawmaker's home on suspicion of salary fraud
Megumi Hirose, 58, is suspected of providing one of her secretaries with a state-paid salary even though they reportedly did no real work.
Devices used in a scam center in Manila that has been shut down by police. Scam centers have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, with crime syndicates luring, kidnapping or coercing workers into predatory online activity and raking in billions of dollars.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2024
Raid on Philippine gambling hub unravels elaborate scheme implicating mayor
The scandal has fueled calls for a ban on the online gambling industry over its links to financial scams, kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking, torture and murder.
A building in the city of Osaka where a syndicate suspected of conducting investment scams on social media operated from.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 24, 2024
90 arrested in Osaka over social media investment scam
Police raided four buildings in the city in the biggest bust of a syndicate involved in this kind of fraud in Japan.
Akira Saito (second from right), who took office as MSDF chief of staff, and his predecessor Adm. Ryo Sakai (right) attend a ceremony at the Defense Ministry on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2024
More allowance frauds discovered at Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Forces
The amount of special allowances that divers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force fraudulently received exceeds ¥53 million, not ¥43 million as initially stated.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

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