Bank transfer fraud (furikome sagi) is a collective term for fraud that uses phone calls to deceive victims into believing false stories and transferring money. Japan's National Police Agency compiles these cases under the name "special fraud," and the breakdown by technique has been revised over the years. Its 2019 statistics list "It's me" fraud, fictitious billing fraud, loan guarantee fraud, refund-type fraud, and cash card theft by deception as the main categories, while its 2024 statistics use "It's me" fraud, deposit fraud, cash card theft by deception, fictitious charge billing fraud, and refund fraud as the main categories (each year also has a residual category). Some category names changed as well, from "fictitious billing fraud" to "fictitious charge billing fraud" and from "refund-type fraud" to "refund fraud."
Money is handed over in ways other than a bank transfer: "theater-style" schemes in which several criminals play the roles of police officers, bank employees, and lawyers to corner the victim, "receiver" schemes in which someone comes to collect the cash card in person, and demands for payment in electronic money or prepaid cards. Cash card theft by deception entered the statistical breakdown with the 2018 figures. Cases using voice cloning technology to mimic a family member's voice, and cases using caller ID spoofing to display a bank's number, have also been reported.
According to National Police Agency statistics, special fraud in 2024 accounted for 21,043 recorded cases and 71.88 billion yen in losses. Victims aged 65 and over accounted for 13,738 cases, or 65.4 percent of all recorded cases excluding corporate victims, down 13.0 points from the previous year. The tool used first to deceive victims was the telephone in 79.0 percent of cases, far ahead of email and messaging (10.0 percent), pop-up displays (8.8 percent), and postcards or sealed letters (2.2 percent).
Specific preventive measures include: hanging up and consulting family when money is mentioned on the phone, knowing that ATMs cannot process refunds, keeping voicemail always on and not answering unknown numbers directly, checking caller identity with Number Display, and consulting the police consultation dial (#9110) for suspicious calls. Establishing a family code word is also an effective defense against voice clone fraud. Review specific countermeasures in bank transfer fraud prevention.