TOKYO COPS USE JAMMERS AT ATMS TO BLUNT ‘REFUND SCAMS’

Tokyo police have installed cellphone jammers at five unmanned ATM locations in the capital to prevent “refund scams,” a growing scourge perpetrated by con artists posing as government or other officials, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

The Metropolitan Police Department is the first police force in Japan to have taken such measures. It plans to install additional cellphone jammers and urge financial institutions to introduce similar contraptions to thwart the fraudsters.

The scam starts with a phone call to the target and ends at an automated teller machine. The con artists usually pretend to be local government officials or tax office workers who say they will be returning overpaid medical expenses or tax. The victims are talked into going to an ATM, where the scammers use cellphones to relay rapid-fire and complicated instructions that cause the victim to send money to a bank account held by the scam artists.

The number of refund scam cases recognized in Tokyo rose tenfold over five years to 1,178 in 2019, while the financial losses increased 15 times to 1.679 billion yen ($16.2 million). The 2019 numbers in the capital accounted for around half of the totals across Japan. For the first nine months of 2020, 559 refund scam cases were recognized in Tokyo, with total damage reaching 994.2 million yen. Around 70 percent of the scams involve unmanned ATM sections, MPD officials said.