Photo/Illutration Foreign Residents Cyber Volunteer members search for crime-related posts on Facebook in Saitama on Aug. 5. (Tomonori Asada)

SAITAMA--Vietnamese student volunteers are working with Saitama prefectural police to identify crime-related posts on social networking sites that generally escape prying eyes due to the use of slang.

It is the first initiative of its kind to be undertaken in Japan, according to law enforcement authorities. The program has already led to warnings being issued on more than 100 posts, many of which were then taken down.

“I want to help reduce crime through this activity,” said V. T. Hien, a member of the Foreign Residents Cyber Volunteer (FRCV) group.

Even during a break in classes at Tokyo Nichigo Gakuin in Saitama, Hien and L. T. Na, both 19, can often be found in their classroom typing Vietnamese text on their smartphones.

They search for keywords such as “bankbook,” “cash card” and “buy” in Facebook groups commonly used by Vietnamese residents in Japan. The terms are often a come-on to engage in criminal activity; for example, selling bankbooks.

After about 20 minutes, Na announces, “I found one,” as she holds up her smartphone.

The post reads: “We buy cash cards and bankbooks from all banks.” It was accompanied by images of bankbooks.

Na shared the images, along with a Japanese translation of the post and the URL, with the prefectural police.

On another day, Hien found a post in Vietnamese that read, “We buy company bank accounts,” and reported it to the police.

The two volunteers usually help out during breaks between classes or in their free time at home.

“It’s sad to see some Vietnamese people involved in criminal activities,” Hien said.

“I’m glad to be able to help the police,” Na said.

SLANG USED TO EVADE DETECTION

Many posts on social media use internet slang and abbreviations to evade detection by Japanese authorities, according to the police.

Some posts intentionally spell the Vietnamese word for buy, “mua,” as “m.u.a,” and others use the abbreviation “blx” to refer to a driver’s license.

Around 40,000 Vietnamese live in Saitama Prefecture, making them the second-largest foreign community after Chinese.

Police on their own have discovered some Vietnamese residents exchanging information on social media about bank account sales, drug transactions and illegal employment.

The police said the abbreviations and internet slang make it difficult for Japanese translators to detect crime-related posts.

For that reason, they recruited help for their cyber patrol effort from language and vocational schools in the prefecture that Vietnamese attend.

Around 20 native Vietnamese-speaking students and staffers from three organizations have joined the FRCV.

POLICE POST WARNINGS

If the police determine from volunteer reports that a post involves criminal activity, they will issue a warning from their account in both Vietnamese and Japanese such as, “In Japan, buying and selling bankbooks and cash cards is illegal.”

If the poster can be identified, the police may apprehend the individual.

During a year-long trial that started in July last year, the police issued warnings on 97 posts, resulting in the deletion or suspension of 75 of them.

Since the FRCV officially joined in the fight from this past July, patrols by both the group and the police led to warnings on 41 posts over a roughly three-month period, with 23 of them subsequently deleted.

“There are slang words related to crime that only native speakers can detect,” a prefectural police officer said. “We hope that the FRCV’s activities will help apprehend more suspects involved in bank account sales and other crimes. We hope to continue working with them.”

Shunichi Nakazawa, head of general affairs at Tokyo Nichigo Gakuin, welcomed the initiative.

“I hope the students can build their awareness of crime prevention through the volunteer work,” he said.

The prefectural police are also considering expanding the initiative to other social media platforms and languages beyond Vietnamese.

Related News