Financial Losses Soar as Cases of Scams Jump in Japan

Rising Losses

Scams are netting ever greater profits in Japan amid a rise in incidents of fraud. National Police Agency statistics show that nationwide, losses from specialized fraud in Japan more than doubled in 2024, soaring by 58.6% to ¥71.8 billion, an increase of ¥26.5 billion. The number of reported cases also climbed, growing 10.5% to 21,043, with there being 2,005 more cases compared to the previous year.

Daily losses from specialized fraud came to ¥196.0 million, a year-on-year increase of ¥72.1 million, while the average amount swindlers netted per case increased by ¥1.1 million to ¥3.5 million.

There were 13,738 reported cases involving people aged 65 or older. Subtracting cases of corporate financial losses, seniors accounted for 65.4% of all reported fraud cases.

The police handled 6,576 cases (down 8.8%) involving 2,274 fraudsters (down 7.4%). Of these, 416 culprits were under the age of 20, with around 70% serving as ukeko, the person who collects money from targeted victims. Among the 1,379 criminals in this role, 286, or around 20%, were under 20.

Among “It’s me” scams (ore ore sagi), where a scammer impersonates a relative of the victim or a trusted member of the community, cases involving the impersonation of police officers more than quadrupled to 4,261. Strategies used by criminals included telling victims that their bank accounts were being used for crimes or that illegal mobile phone contracts had been made in their names. Cases of false billing fraud in which victims are tricked into paying false usage fees for services they have never used, rose by around 10% to 5,716. However, cases of refund fraud, based on claims that victims will be reimbursed for medical bills or insurance premiums, saw a slight decrease to 4,070.

Social Media Fraud

Social media investment fraud, in which unauthorized images of famous people are used in social media advertisements to encourage investment in fake schemes, and romance fraud via social media and matching apps saw major increases in 2024, more than doubling to 10,237 cases, while financial losses nearly tripled to ¥127.2 billion. The NPA categorizes longer-term social media fraud separately from specialized fraud.

The average financial loss per case in social media investment fraud was extremely high at ¥13.6 million. Most of the victims were men and women aged from their forties to their seventies.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: Immigration officers in Pattaya, Thailand, arrest Japanese citizens suspected of involvement in specialized fraud in December 2024. Courtesy the Thai Immigration Bureau; © Jiji.)