Scam and Victim Reported with Japan’s New My Number

Numbers of scams have been reported with the establishment of the new system. My Number is a 12 digit numbers given for all individuals in Japan for many uses, but it has been abused by fraudsters.

A woman who is on her 70's has become the first victim of the scam from the newly introduced system of My Number.

She lives in southern Kanto area and received a phone call from a person who pretends to be working for a public consultation. Then the person told her a false My Number of herself.  The phone call was then followed by another guy, asking for her My Number and she chose to tell the My Number she has been told from another person.

On the next day, the old woman received  a phone call from the person who spoke with her in the first conversation and told her that "It is illegal to give your My Number to others and you must pay the fine".  She followed what she was told to do bu paying money in cash. She sent the money by post as well as delivering into the person's hands. It is reported that several million yen has been swindled.

This is the only case reported to be scammed so far, but there have been many attempts all over Japan since the start of the new system. Even though the method of scam can be developed, there are 3 main ways that are used for the scam.

This first one is called theater type which is just like the case above for old woman. Several different people call you and tell you different stories with progress as if the situation changes around you. Then end pf the story, you will be asked to pay money for following what people were saying.

Another type is to collect personal information which can be used for billing fraud. Someone might call you and ask you about details such as your family members, etc pretending to have a survey. There is no direct swindling, however, the information will be used later for another scam such as billing fraud.

And the last one is a piggyback type. In this type, there is no relation with the new system of My Number but mentioning it to make the person believe their business. A person might tell you "you should buy gold as your property because tax office will find out your bank detail"
Japanese police and consumer agency have been warning citizens especially elderly. The government provides call center available to discuss it if people receive a contact from an unknown person regarding My Number.