Tokyo Police Open Website about “Tokuryu” Criminal Groups

Tokyo, March 25 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have opened a website about “tokuryu” anonymous and transient criminal groups, which are involved in “yami baito” illegal jobs and online and other scams classified as special fraud in Japan. The website, launched Tuesday by the Metropolitan Police Department’s division dedicated to cracking down on tokuryu groups, gives details of the latest fraud tricks and presents accounts of people who experienced yami baito jobs. The website has a section where viewers can listen to recordings of fraud calls including from a person who pretended to be a police officer. The Tokyo police hope this will help prevent further damage and participation in special fraud. In an account shown on the website, a woman in her 20s said she found on her smartphone job information that it was possible to earn 1.5 million to 3 million yen, and that she applied for the work. Her account also said she traveled to Cambodia without being informed of work details and was assigned to the job of making fraudulent phone calls under surveillance in a building surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire. Payments to her stopped during her employment, and the money she received was eventually taken away, according to the account. Visitors to the website can also read stories of victims, including a man in his 60s who lost about 100 million yen through investment fraud. The website leads visitors to a special hotline that receives anonymous reports from individuals who know people possibly involved in special fraud and who are worried they may have applied for yami baito jobs without realizing it. “We want the public to know about tokuryu’s vicious and heinous nature and increase the momentum in the whole society to eliminate (such groups),” said Tetsuya Ueda, strategic planner at the MPD division. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]