Japan: Police will freeze bank accounts

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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:28 am

Yay. Finally they are taking the problem of fraud IN Japan seriously. Now if we can expand their horizon a little bit.

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2009/1/14

In a pre-emptive measure against con artists, the National Police Agency will ask financial institutions to freeze accounts that look like they may be used in bank-transfer scams, sources said Wednesday.

The new measure will start on a full-scale basis next month, they said.

In bank-transfer scams, con artists often call their targets pretending to be relatives in need of emergency funds. The targets are instructed to pay money into specified bank accounts.

Currently, police ask financial institutions to freeze accounts after the money is transferred and withdrawn by the fraudster. The idea is to try to catch the scam artists in the act and retrieve the stolen money.

Police had refrained from requesting a freeze on accounts before the victims suffered losses because such requests could infringe on individuals' rights.

But with bank-transfer fraud showing no signs of letting up, police changed their stance and decided that leaving shady accounts open could give con artists a tool to use against future victims.

Many fraud attempts are detected by the would-be targets or bank employees before the money is transferred. Under the new system, if those people or the banks inform police about the fraud attempts, police will investigate and ask financial institutions to freeze any suspicious account involved.

Banks accounts opened illicitly under other people's or fictitious names are sold on black markets, including those on the Internet. The prices of those accounts jumped from 40,000 yen to 50,000 yen in 2007 to 80,000 yen to 100,000 yen in 2008 as financial institutions have applied stricter measures to confirm the identities of those who open accounts.

"If the freeze of such bank accounts spreads, the prices of the illicit accounts will rise further, making it more difficult for fraudsters to commit bank-transfer scams," an NPA official said.

Financial institutions have, in principle, accepted such requests from police and can freeze accounts on their own discretion.

From 2004 to 2007, police made 25,000 to 32,000 requests a year to financial institutions to freeze accounts.

In the first six months of 2008, the number of requests was about 16,000.

About 40,000 bank accounts are frozen annually, according to the Japanese Bankers Association.

(IHT/Asahi: January 14,2009)

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:32 am

Interesting post Miyu Smile

Good to see you posting again too Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:49 pm

Japan takes EVERYTHING too serious. They went into a state of panic after 7 students were killed in a school shooting. There has been much worse school shootings in America and Finland than the one in Japan. Rolling Eyes

I'm surprised they haven't responded to fraud sooner.

EDIT: Come to think of it there are quite a few Nigerias in Japan. Maybe a few of them may have something to with it eh?

@Miyu: Thanks for that article! Razz

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:39 pm

I'm sure Alan will be only too pleased to see this information. Now we need to see how many accounts we can get for him.

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:16 am

No the Japanese police do not respond. This is called furikome sagi in Japan. The first reported case was in 1986. This is a purely domestic kind of fraud, unless the Nigerians are trying it too.

@ Koko.Dk , yes there are Nigerians in Japan. They launder money but this is probably too small time for them. 2 Nigerians are now in prison for money laundering anwyay.

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:24 pm

Nigerians aren't the only ones that do scams. I'm just saying... Wink

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:09 am

I know. when the 2 Nigerians were arrested there were also 11 Japanese arrested. They were mules for the money laundering. One was a yakuza, one was probably a yakuza wannabee and 2 were underage minors.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:57 pm

I am licking my lips in anticipation!!! The Japanese were one of the better nations in dealing with our information. This should lead to even more Chinese and Nigerian Accounts appearing in my lists. Twisted Evil

As this part of the forum is searched by Google Bots, I will repeat my mantra.

NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANYONE NOT KNOWN PERSONALLY TO YOU VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM OR ANY OTHER CASH TRANSFER SERVICE.

To which I must add. IF SOMEONE OFFERS A BANK ACCOUNT IN CHINA OR NIGERIA TO RECEIVE MONEY FOR ANY TRANSACTION. WALK AWAY. There are honest businesses in both countries, but the level of fraud is such that unless you are in a position to personally check out the individuals behind the accounts, you are highly likely to lose your money.

Finally, in spite of being an African Country, South African banks take a robust view of fraud via SABRIC and do not feature very often in my lists. However there is one exception. Rennies Bank is not a member of SABRIC and operates a money transfer system similar to that operated by MoneyGram. Money can be sent from overseas to a named individual in South Africa who does need to be an Account holder at Rennies Bank - he merely has to produce his id card. The scammers have discovered this system and are using it increasingly for their schemes. IF YOU ARE INVITED TO SEND MONEY TO ANYONE AT A BANK ANYWHERE THAT CONTAINS THE SWIFT CODE "RNNSZA" WALK AWAY UNLESS YOU HAVE KNOWN THE RECIPIENT PERSONALLY FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS.

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