OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested 11 members of a special fraud ring, including the suspected mastermind, over an phone scam operation that may have netted over 740 million yen, reports Nippon News Network (Oct. 16).
According to police, the ring specialized in ore ore sagi (It’s me fraud), whereby callers pose as relatives over the telephone in order to swindle them.
Takuya Okuhara, a 32-year-old unemployed resident of Tokyo’s Minato Ward, and his alleged second-in-command, 28-year-old So Moriyama, are accused of swindling an Osaka Prefecture woman in her 80s out of 2 million yen in cash in July of this year.
According to police, the suspects phoned the elderly victim and posed as her son, telling her, “I made a profit trading stocks, but if I don’t pay the taxes on it, it’s going to be tax evasion.” Believing her son was in legal trouble, the woman handed over the cash.
Okuhara allegedly led the syndicate’s operations with Moriyama serving as his lieutenant. To evade police detection, the group constantly shifted its illicit call center, bouncing between at least 16 different business hotels to make their fraudulent calls.
Police have not disclosed whether the 11 suspects have admitted to the charges.
Investigators are currently probing the full scope of the syndicate’s crimes, estimating that the group may be responsible for duping approximately 300 victims out of more than 740 million yen.