The Ore-Ore ("It's Me") Fraud.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Byline: Matsunaga Tsutomu

Ore-ore frauds are causing considerable consternation throughout Japan. "Ore" is one of the first-person pronouns in Japanese. It is not as formal as "watashi" and men commonly use this form when conversing with close friends and family members.

The standard modus opercndi of this kind of fraud is as follows. The perpetrator suddenly calls the residence of an old person and says, "Ore da yo" (It's me). The recipient of the call - who is living separately from family members - assumes that the speaker is his or her own grandson or even son. "Are you XXX?" - the recipient usually addresses the caller by the name of the child or grandchild. And then, the caller says, "Yes, it's XXX, ... I had a traffic accident and I have to pay the other party a million yen." In desperation, the old person rushes to help out by transferring the amount to the designated bank account. By the time the payee realizes the caller was a fraud and that he or she has been duped, the money has been withdrawn from the account.

According to the National Police Agency, during the past year, cases of such fraud have amounted to losses of over [acute accent]4.3 billion.

The contents of the phone calls have covered a range of tribulations that a young adult might encounter, such as, "I made a big mistake at work, and if the company finds out, I'll lose my job." Even fortuitous events have been used as an excuse for asking that money be sent. One 63-year-old woman received a call saying, "It looks like I'm going to get promoted, and I urgently need money to buy company stock with." Without hesitation, she transferred \800,000.

"Karaoke boxes"* have proven to be the perfect base for committing such crimes, because these facilities are soundproof. In complete privacy, the perpetrators select from telephone directories people whose names are particular to the older generations and use their mobile phones to make one call after another.