Photo/Illutration Police officers search an area in Yokohama where a local resident was murdered in a home robbery apparently involving “yami baito” recruits. (Arisa Inaba)

Scam groups, apparently facing a labor shortage in Japan, are recruiting unsuspecting Taiwanese people for roles in their nefarious schemes, police sources said.

Some young people from Taiwan have been arrested within days of their arrival in Japan.

“There is a possibility crime groups are looking for people in nearby nations because it has become more difficult to find people (in Japan) to handle such jobs,” a high-ranking officer of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said.

Similar to the “yami baito” (dark part-time jobs) series of home robberies in the greater Tokyo area, the Taiwanese were recruited through social media, the sources said.

Some of the suspects from abroad said they were duped or coerced into carrying out criminal activity in Japan.

In one case, a 20-year-old Taiwanese was arrested on Dec. 7 on suspicion of attempted fraud, three days after he landed in Japan.

Investigative sources at the Nogata Police Station in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward pieced together the scheme attempt that was carried out between Dec. 3 and 7.

They said the young Taiwanese man in late October saw a Facebook ad seeking individuals who wanted to earn money quickly and easily.

When he clicked on the ad, he received an invitation to sign on as a friend on the Telegram app, which is known for its high degree of anonymity and is often used in crimes.

The man was told in Chinese that he could earn money abroad, so he provided his name and contact number. He was also told to wait for a phone call about a job.

On Dec. 3, the phone call came, telling him to fly to Japan the next day. Still not knowing exactly what the job was, the man arrived in Japan on a short-stay visa.

Three days later, he met up with a 39-year-old Taiwanese man, a stranger who would turn out to be an accomplice.

Meanwhile, another member of the scam group impersonated a police officer and called a man in his 70s who lives in Nakano Ward. The fake cop said authorities obtained an arrest warrant for him because his mobile phone had been used in fraudulent activity.

The Nakano Ward man had purchased about 7 kilograms of gold worth around 90 million yen ($572,000), and the scammers told him he would have to turn over the gold bars to tax authorities.

The two Taiwanese individuals were instructed to collect the gold.

However, the target became suspicious and called the real police, who were on hand when two Taiwanese showed up at the man’s condominium in the ward.

They were arrested after the older Taiwanese man instructed the 20-year-old to get a bag from the resident.

The younger suspect told police he had no idea what was in the bag.

MORE GOLD

In September, officers at the Shakujii Police Station in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward arrested three Taiwanese on suspicion of defrauding a man in his 70s living in Kyoto Prefecture.

Their scam group apparently got the elderly man to buy gold worth the equivalent of about 116 million yen, and members devised a scheme to relieve him of that gold.

A Taiwanese woman whose role was to receive the gold from the man was told about the job after using social media to apply for a loan in Taiwan.

She said she gave the gold to two Taiwanese men who had also come to Japan.

THREATS TO FAMILY

And in another case in the capital, a 19-year-old Taiwanese was arrested on Dec. 11 on suspicion of withdrawing 1.96 million yen in cash on Nov. 19 from an ATM in Shinjuku Ward by using a cash card fraudulently taken by a scam group.

Officers at the Ikebukuro Police Station said the teenager arrived in Japan the day before he withdrew the money.

He told police an acquaintance had asked if he could help out with a job while visiting Japan for fun.

The teenager followed the instructions of the acquaintance and used Telegram to communicate with another person who was apparently in charge of the work.

After the teen sent his passport photo and address to the recruiter, he was told: “Go to Japan. You cannot refuse because we will go to your home and hurt your mother.”

(This article was written by Hiromichi Fujita and Arata Mitsui.)

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