Elderly targeted in TV fraud / Victims duped into handing over cash for analog-digital conversion
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Hundreds of elderly people have been duped into parting with inflated cash payments to have their TVs "adjusted" to gain access to terrestrial digital broadcasts as the nation moves closer to pulling the plug on analog broadcasting in July 2011.
The rash of such fraud cases can be partly attributed to an insufficient dissemination of information on the planned transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan, there have been hundreds of cases in the past few years in which victims have been asked to cough up fees by people falsely identifying themselves as electrical appliance store employees or corporate staff in charge of terrestrial digital TV broadcasting.
In some cases, the victims received letters purporting to be from the ministry or TV broadcasters telling the recipients they would receive a subsidy for the conversion work if they paid a commission into a designated bank account.
Following the recent spate of fraud, the ministry is now accepting inquiries about terrestrial digital services at its Consultation Center for Terrestrial Digital Television Broadcast. To use the service, call (0570) 07-0101, or (03) 4334-1111 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and until 6 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays.
SOURCE: The Daily Yomiuri - Osaka,Japan
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