Photo/Illutration An image of a fake document with “arrest warrant” written on the top, sent by fraudsters (Provided by Yamagata prefectural police)

Fraudsters, often posing as police officers, are increasingly targeting elderly people by persuading them to provide gold bullion to prove their innocence in supposed crimes.

The scams have been committed in several prefectures around Japan. Some victims have lost hundreds of millions of yen.

One man in his 60s living in Yamagata city was swindled out of around 40 million yen ($253,000), including gold bullion, Yamagata prefectural police said in December.

It all started when the man received a phone call on Nov. 4 from a number starting with +1844.

The caller claimed to be “Sakai of the Yamaguchi prefectural police,” and told the man his mobile phone had been fraudulently used.

“Sakai” then passed the phone to his boss, “Matsumoto,” who told the man, “We will send you a phone for the investigation,” and ended the call.

On Nov. 6, a smartphone in a brown envelope was delivered to the man’s mailbox.

The next day, during a video call through the provided phone, “Matsumoto” appeared in a police uniform and said an arrest warrant had been issued for the Yamagata man.

“Matsumoto” even sent an image of a document with “arrest warrant” written on it.

The fake police officer said if the man temporarily provided funds, a more thorough investigation could be conducted that could clear his name.

“We need to check the serial numbers on the banknotes, but that will take time. If you convert it to gold, it will be faster,” he told the man.

He advised the man to buy gold at a precious metals store in Miyagi Prefecture.

Wanting to prove his innocence, the man bought 2.4 kilograms of gold bullion worth around 35.4 million yen at the store the following day.

On Nov. 9, he followed instructions to leave the gold bullion outside his home’s entrance.

The gold soon disappeared, and the man assumed a police officer had taken it for safekeeping.

Five days later, “Matsumoto” contacted him again, requesting an additional 3.9 million yen for an “inspection process.”

The man transferred the money to a specified account.

“Matsumoto” also provided an image of a document that read “certificate of temporary safekeeping for inspection process.”

After that, the man lost contact with “Matsumoto.”

He called the Yamaguchi prefectural police department and found that no officers named Sakai or Matsumoto were employed there.

Realizing he had been scammed, he reported the incident to the Yamagata Police Station.

RISING GOLD PRICES, PORTABILITY

In December, two men who came to Japan from Taiwan apparently for “yami baito” (shady part-time jobs offered online) were arrested on suspicion of defrauding a Tokyo woman in her 60s of around 27 million yen worth of gold bullion.

In Miyagi Prefecture, a woman in her 70s was tricked over the phone by someone posing as a police officer and lost 13 kg of gold bullion worth around 200 million yen between November and December.

Fraud cases involving gold bullion worth more than 10 million yen have also been reported in Miyazaki, Kagawa and Hyogo prefectures since August last year. All of the victims were in their 70s or 80s.

The scams seem to follow three steps.

First, fraudsters call and claim the victim is a suspect in a criminal case. Next, they instruct the victim to obtain gold bullion. And then, the fraudsters direct the victim to leave the gold bullion in a mailbox, at the front door or another specified location.

According to the National Police Agency, scams using these methods have been increasing since last year.

The rise in such cases can be attributed to the soaring price of gold, said Toshihiro Uchida, a visiting professor of macroeconomics at Chukyo University.

According to Tanaka Precious Metal Technologies Co., a major dealer in precious metals, the average price of gold increased from 6,580 yen per gram (excluding tax) in December 2021 to 13,082 yen in December 2024.

Uchida also noted that gold is less cumbersome and easier to carry than cash, and that more people are investing in gold.

“When withdrawing large amounts of cash at a bank counter or ATM, saying it’s for investing in gold might help avoid suspicion,” Uchida said.

(This article was written by Koichi Anzai and Daichi Itakura.)

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