“Phone company employee demands 500,000 yen for unpaid fees.”

On December 7th, at the Hokuyo Bank Shinkotoni branch (Kita Ward, Sapporo), a 75-year-old man was nearly defrauded of 500,000 yen by someone claiming to be an employee of a mobile phone company. The man was told there were “unpaid fees” and was about to transfer the money. Bank staff recognized the situation and prevented what would have been a case of “fake billing fraud,” a type of special fraud.