‘Granny scams’ in US and ‘Ore Ore scams’ in Japan

In the United States, older Americans lose millions of dollars to scam artists pretending to be the victim’s grandchildren, son or daughter who need money for bail, fine or hospital bills, etc. The “granny scam” accounts for a growing part of the estimated $2.9 billion seniors lose in financial scams each year.

In Japan, the population is rapidly aging and demographic trends suggest roughly 40 percent of Japanese will be 65 years old or over by 2040. Elderly are often targeted by swindlers. The most notorious and infamous of these scams are the so-called “ore ore” (It’s me, it’s me) telephone scam, which uses the phone to trick people into parting with cash, robs many elderly people who are persuaded that their loved ones have phoned them to ask for emergency money.

Losses from so-called special fraud cases totaled 55.9 billion yen (US$474 million) in 2014, up by 7 million yen ($59 million) from a year earlier, making consecutive annual record, according to Japan’s National Police Agency. There are 13,371 cases of special fraud in 2014 and about 80 per cent of the victims are elderly people aged over 65. The losses through the “Ore ore” scam showed the largest amount at 17.5 billion yen.

In “Ore ore” scams, callers pose as relatives, police officers or other people their targets might trust. In most of the cases, the fraudsters approached the victims by pretending to be sons or grandsons in an emergency and convince their victims to send money, generally via ATM. When transaction limits at ATMs have come severe, then perpetrators have chosen the use of delivery services such as courier services and Letter pack flat-rate cardboard mailers or person-to-person delivery.

SOURCE:    Tempo News

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