Police in Tokyo have arrested three men who conspired to con an elderly woman to give them large sums of money, after one of them pretended to be her son on the phone.
Police identified one of the trio as Takeshi Umehara, 32, and said he had ties to the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate, NTV reported Wednesday.
According to police, Umehara phoned the 78-year-old woman and pretended to be her son. He then proceeded to ask for approximately 4 million yen after explaining that he needed help to cover his stock market losses.
Suspicious of the phone call, the woman told her husband who contacted their son. The family then notified police. A 24-year-old man, claiming to be a colleague of the couple's son, showed up to collect the money and was arrested.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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titaniumdi0xide
Ore ore scammers busted! Hoorayyyy!
Mirai Hayashi
Finally...an elderly couple who played it right! Good job!
CrazyJoe
Hope police catch all the guys on top of the pyramid who often disappears.
Garthgoyle
Ha! I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he was waiting for all that money and instead got busted. Good call on the woman, the husband and the cops.
Gobshite
Catch them? They go drinking with them....
Pukey2
Good on them! I think the old folks who realize they're being set up should go along with the plan and then let the police handle it with their own trap.
dcog9065
What a disgraceful fraud to pull on elderly people, hope these scum spend some heavy time in jail
hooktrunk2
I started using a telephone password with my mother when I speak with her on the phone. I say my name and password. I feel silly doing it, but with news like this usually being where someone is taken for a large sum of money, I'm being vigilant. My mom just chuckles and says that she's not that dumb. A friend of mine's father was taken for $5000 and he's sharp as a tack. The criminals are very persuasive.
nath
We are all gullible at times. I downloaded IO8 for an iPad 2. Lucky this woman told her husband, but I cannot help wonder why she did not immediately call her son up.
Alphaape
Glad this perp was caught. But what I don't understand, why do parents think that they are responsible for a son's stock lossess? The man is an adult. If you go into a business with someone, you shouldn't expect their parents to back up any losses that you may incur, just like you are not expected to pay the persons parents any share of the profits you may receive.
lucabrasi
@Alpha
We humans do all kind of things for each other out of love. It's not always about the balance sheet. : )
ReformedBasher
They're pros with lots of free time. Darwin's "law" applies to the ones who get caught, which means there's some really smart crims out there.
Anyway, glad these guys got caught. Maybe have some kind of program where they get sent to a rather unpleasant overseas prison to serve their time?
how to get gimelim
"Ha! I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he was waiting for all that money and instead got busted. Good call on the woman, the husband and the cops."
To be arrested here, the perpetrator needs to get hold of the money and only after that fact the policemen appear from their hiding spots and take him in their custody.
Magnus Roe
No no no no.. In this story, this would be carelessness. I find it hard to comprehend for car accidents as well, but at least there's some kind of immediacy in the picture. But for failed investments? You generally have time, more than enough to pop over to mum and ask for an annual salary over a cup of tea. It's very difficult to sympathize with people this gullible, even if it weren't for the people scamming them were so much more reprehensible.
Alphaape
I love my family, but if they blow a wad of cash on something frivolous, then that is on them. I can help out, but not bail out. Why am I going to go into the "red" because of the lack of restraint for someone else?
But, I see it here in Japan not only for this but other issues. I am a foreigner, and have a job that pays. Yet I have to find some Japanese to verfiy my status in able to rent my home. If I were not going to pay rent, then it is on me as an adult and not some other person, I don't see why a person is held responsible for that someone else has done.
But I am glad the perps have been caught and the parents had the foresight to call their actual son and figure out what is going on.
slumdog
Good!
Serrano
"A 24-year-old man, claiming to be a colleague of the couple’s son, showed up to collect the money and was arrested"
I sure would like to have seen the look on the a-hole's face.
WilliB
Well done! These ore ore scammers are true low lifes.