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We get a surprise offer from “Yusaku Maezawaa,” with an extra “a” for “a...
But don’t worry it’s “not in a real scam.” Yusaku Maezawa is a Japanese name that probably needs no introduction. The ostentatious billionaire founder of clothing site ZOZOTOWN and future moon tourist...
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567 cartons of cigarettes bought with 120 smartphones at once leads to arrest...
He could have stopped at 500, but he just got greedy. On 30 September, a 24-year-old man walked into a convenience store in Fuanbashi City, Chiba Prefecture, with a cardboard box full of 120...
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Family cheated out of 54 million yen by man impersonating Japanese rock star...
Suspect also convinced his own mother he was the Dir En Grey frontman for 10 years. In the annals of Japanese music Dir En Grey is often identified as just another visual kei band, but really they’re...
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Oita woman loses lawsuit and pays damages without ever knowing she’d been sued
A frightening case of using the legal system to commit robbery. If you’re on the receiving end of someone shouting “You’ve been served!” it means you just lost a big dance battle, been sued, or if...
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Foreigner convenience store clerk in Japan saves elderly woman from scammers...
Refuses to give up when senior doesn’t realize she’s being taken advantage of. In Japan, cash remains the most popular way to pay for things. E-money cards are gaining ground, but primarily among...
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Former idol singer arrested on fraud charges, police say she found victims...
Former SKE48 member claimed to be an investing expert with a can’t-fail get-rich-quick scheme. Show business is a young person’s game, and that goes double for being an idol singer, where most...
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Japanese woman reported to police for “not looking right in a suit,” turns...
How do scam artists keep getting caught in Japan by “not looking good in a suit?” “Taxi driver” is one of those jobs that can involve a broad range of activities. Obviously driving the taxi is the...
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Kansai man arrested for defrauding his 35 girlfriends
He would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for his 35 girlfriends. Time and time again we see cases of criminal breaking the cardinal rule of getting too greedy and blowing the lid off their...
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People in Japan can now earn 10,000-yen bounties for scamming scammers
Turning the tables on the ore ore scam in Nagoya can leave you richer than you were before the attempted fraud. The “ore ore scam” is one of the oldest cons in Japan, and it starts when a crook calls...
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Saitama man repeatedly steals food from store by making his phone say “PayPay♫”
Crime doesn’t PayPay. Of the many new electronic payment services that have emerged in Japan in the last few years, PayPay is probably the largest. Having arrived on the scene early with aggressive...
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Nintendo issues warning about scam sites pretending to be the company’s...
Sites offer deep discounts on Switch, but could be taking something else in return. On Friday evening, Nintendo Japan put out a warning on both its official website and Twitter account. According to...
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Retired Member of Parliament arrested pretending to be active MP for...
And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for that meddling JR and its clerical errors. Japan recently went through its Golden Week holidays, which are a cluster of public holidays all...
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Yakuza bosses struggling to upgrade phones from 3G
Crime lords getting shaken down by telecom giants. Although they have to deal with the cutthroat struggle for businesses and territory regularly, you would think that yakuza bosses balance things out...
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Shiga woman defrauded 4.4M yen by man asking for money to fly down from the...
Ground control to major fraud… International romance scams are a growing problem around the world. This is when a fraudster assumes the identity of an eligible bachelor or bachelorette on social media...
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Our reporter’s in relationship trouble after fake girlfriend loses $10,000 on...
Can this romance fraud survive the stress of a lost bet? We weren’t really sure when to share this with our readers, but our writer and head editor Go has been in a serious relationship for the past...
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Japan considering restricting senior citizens’ access to ATMs
National Police Agency believe it’s for their own good. For a while now there have been scores of cases in which a con artist will somehow dupe a person into transferring money. There are a lot of...
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Aichi man arrested for impersonating Aichi boy to gain social support
Age ain’t nothing but a number, but it’s got to be the correct one. Wouldn’t it be nice to be 17 forever? I mean, not for me at least because that was the age I got banned from my D&D party for...
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Japan’s new ATMs automatically play anti-fraud videos to people talking on...
Japanese police using the latest in AI and hand-enlarging technology. One of the most problematic side-effects of Japan’s steadily aging population has been the proliferation of “special fraud”...
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Nagoya elementary students caught defrauding classmate for nearly 1 million yen
Money spent on souvenir tokens and Canadian currency. There’s a lot of talk about how seniors in Japan are a frequent target for scammers, but we shouldn’t overlook the dangers that prepubescent fraud...
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Shohei Ohtani’s personal interpreter fired, accused of “massive theft” to pay...
It’s a wild ending for one of the highest-profile pairings in the translation/interpretation world. For the last few years, it’s been hard to think of a sweeter gig in the translation/interpretation...
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