Why Older People Are the Target
According to National Police Agency figures, in 2023 (Reiwa 5) some 78.4 percent of the victims of organised fraud - the "it's me" impostor scam, the bogus tax refund and their variants - were aged 65 or over. There are several reasons why they are singled out.
- They use a landline as a matter of course, and landline numbers are more readily made public
- They are often at home during the day
- Their wish not to be a burden on the family is turned against them
- They are less at ease with smartphones and the internet, which makes checking information harder
- If they live alone, there is nobody nearby to consult
Yet there are a great many cases in which a little attention from the family is enough to prevent the loss. What matters is not blaming your grandparents but working out the safeguards together with them.
Measures You Can Take Straight Away
1. Agree a family code word
The impostor scam begins with a call saying "It's me - my mobile number has changed." To defeat it, decide on a code word that only the family knows.
Examples: What is the name of our cat? Where did we go on holiday last year? What is your mother's signature dish?
When somebody calls claiming to be a family member, ask for the code word to confirm who they are. It is important never to post the code word on social media, to change it from time to time, and to make sure the whole family knows it. Get into the habit of checking and updating it when the family gathers, at New Year or the summer Obon holiday, and it is less likely to be forgotten.
2. Leave the answering machine on at all times
Keep the answering machine on the landline switched on permanently, so that calls from unknown numbers are never picked up in person. Because fraudsters dislike leaving recorded evidence, once the answering machine takes over they almost always hang up without leaving a message. A caller who rings off without giving a name can safely be treated as one there was no need to answer.
You may worry that leaving the machine on means missing an important call, but anybody with genuine business will leave a message. Register the numbers of family and close friends in the phone's directory and set it to ring normally for those numbers, and you can rest easy.
3. Subscribe to caller number display
Subscribe to Number Display, which shows the caller's number, and calls from numbers they do not recognise can be identified in advance. With NTT the service costs 440 yen a month (including tax, as of 2026). Simply having the number on screen makes it possible to decide not to answer because the number is unfamiliar.
4. Replace the handset with a crime-prevention model
Several manufacturers sell telephones equipped with crime-prevention features. Merely playing an automated message saying that the call will be recorded for crime prevention purposes is enough to make most fraudsters give up and hang up, wary as they are of leaving recorded evidence. For details see our guide to choosing a telephone with crime-prevention features. Some local authorities lend these handsets to households with elderly members free of charge, so it is worth asking your city, ward, town or village office.
5. Lower the ATM withdrawal limit
Reducing the ATM limit on your grandparents' bank account keeps the loss down should they fall victim after all. Setting the daily withdrawal and transfer limit at 100,000 to 200,000 yen is a sensible choice. The change can be made at a branch counter.
What Teenagers Can Do
Call them regularly
Simply calling your grandparents regularly is itself a defence against fraud. Just asking whether they have had any odd calls lately serves as a reminder to stay alert. A call even once a week gives them the trigger to think: my grandchild rang only the other day, so this call is suspicious.
Teach them how the scams work
Tell them in concrete terms which calls are frauds.
- "My mobile number has changed" - the classic line of the scam. If a number had genuinely changed, word would come from the old number as well
- "You can complete the refund procedure at an ATM" - refunds cannot be received at an ATM. This is 100 percent a fraud
- "Please transfer the money today" - no legitimate organisation demands a same-day transfer over the phone
- "Do not tell anybody else" - being sworn to silence is proof of a fraud. In a genuine emergency there is no problem in consulting the family
- "We will take your cash card into safe keeping" - the police never, under any circumstances, take a card into safe keeping
Rather than telling them everything at once, mention one point each time you call and it will stick more easily.
Help them with their phone settings
If your grandparents use a smartphone, help them set up call blocking and install a nuisance-call app. On an iPhone, simply switching on Silence Unknown Callers is effective; on Android, enabling caller and spam filtering in the Google Phone app does the same job.
Stick a checklist on the fridge
Writing out a simple checklist - if money comes up on a call, hang up first, then call the family, then consult #9110 - and sticking it near the phone or on the fridge is effective too. Even in a moment of panic, having it somewhere in plain view is enough to jog the memory.
If You Hear They Have Had a Suspicious Call
- Stay calm and hear them out first. Do not scold them for answering, because scolding stops them telling you next time
- Check whether any money has been transferred
- Check whether any personal information - an account number, a PIN - has been given out
- Check whether a cash card has been handed to anybody
- If there has been a loss, report it to the police on 110
- Even if there has not, report it to the police consultation line on #9110
- Tell them thank you for letting me know, so that they will come to you again next time
If money has already been transferred, contact the receiving bank at once and ask for the account to be frozen. The sooner this is done, the better the chance of getting the money back. Under the bank transfer fraud relief act, the Furikome Sagi Kyusai Ho, it is sometimes possible to have the stolen money returned out of the balance remaining in the frozen account.
Make Use of the Local Watch Network
There are limits to what a family can do alone to protect an older relative. Make use of the local watch network as well.
- The minsei-in, or district welfare commissioner: keeps an eye on older residents in the area, and will share information about suspicious calls
- The community general support centre: the consultation desk for all aspects of an older person's life, fraud losses included
- Police crime-prevention email: crime-prevention bulletins distributed by each prefectural police force, which report the scams occurring locally in real time
- The residents' association or neighbourhood association: in some areas these circulate warnings about scams through newsletters and noticeboards
Summary
Protecting your grandparents from fraud calls for no special knowledge. Agree a code word, switch the answering machine on, call them regularly. Those three things alone cut the risk of a loss enormously. And the most important thing of all is to tell them to let you know if they get a strange call, so that the relationship is one in which they find it easy to ask.