35 Japanese held in phone scam probe
Print Edition
CHINESE authorities have detained 35 Japanese nationals in the southeastern province of Fujian for alleged fraud, the Japanese foreign ministry said yesterday, in what could turn out to be one of the worst cases of telephone scams targeting the elderly.
Phone-based fraud is widespread in Japan, with a caller, usually posing as a child or grandchild in need of cash, asking an elderly person to make a bank transfer or give money to a friend or colleague.
“We were informed that local authorities notified the Japanese consulate-general in Guangzhou on July 3 that they had taken 35 Japanese nationals into criminal custody on suspicion of fraud,” a Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked not to be identified, told reporters. The official declined to give further details because the investigation was being conducted by Chinese authorities.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had informed Japan about the detentions on June 30. He gave no other details.
The Nikkei business daily said the Japanese were accused of involvement in scams targeting residents of Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo.
The group is the largest Japanese telephone fraud group discovered to be operating in China so far, in terms of the numbers detained, the Nikkei said.
Such groups have increasingly been making calls from China in recent years to evade crackdowns by Japanese authorities, the paper added.
The detained Japanese are alleged to have played the role of callers in the fraud, it said, adding that it was up to Chinese authorities to decide whether to hand them over to Japan.
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