[/floatr]Yomiuri: Cases of scammers posing as tax officials spikes 650% in 2007
People posing as tax office officials and calling victims to offer refunds managed to net a total of 2.45 billion yen in 2,158 fraudulent cash transfers using automated teller machines between January and November last year, police said....The majority of victims have been people aged 60 or over and the fraudsters are believed to have preyed on their unfamiliarity with using ATMs...The scam involves a criminal group member pretending to be an official from a public institution, such as a tax or social insurance office, who calls a victim and instructs them to take their cash card and mobile phone to an ATM to receive a refund for overpayment of tax or pension premiums. They then call the victim's mobile phone and tell them the "procedure" to receive the refunds. Giving false information such as an "identity code" and a "refund code," they dupe the victim into actually keying in an amount and account number and have them transfer money to one of the swindlers' accounts. The perpetrators use several tricks to confuse their victims. In many cases they tell their victims they have to perform the procedure within that day and win over their trust by specifying amounts down to the exact yen...Also conspicuous was the fact that they usually instructed people to go to ATMs at financial institutions or convenience stores where no bank clerks were present...According to the NPA, the first case of this type was confirmed in June 2006 in Saitama Prefecture...more...
