Novel Smartphone Scam Targeting Elderly Found in Osaka

Newsfrom Japan

Society

Sep 12, 2025 13:50 (JST)

Tokyo, Sept. 12 (Jiji Press)–A novel type of fraud has been reported in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, in which scammers send elderly people smartphones and swindle them out of money using the devices, it was learned Friday.

In such a scam, elderly individuals start using smartphones as told by scammers. Victims are swindled via social media and video call services and cryptocurrency apps that became available to them because they acquired the devices.

According to the special fraud investigation division of the Osaka prefectural police, a man posing as a police officer called a woman in her 70s who lives in the prefecture in July, claiming that she was a suspect in a fraud case. During the call, he asked her to buy a smartphone later.

As the woman did not follow the man’s instructions for a while, a smartphone was delivered to her mailbox.

After receiving the device, the woman began to communicate with the man via social media and was told to withdraw cash and buy gold. This resulted in her losing 5 million yen and 1.5 kilograms of gold, valued at about 26 million yen.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press