Home electrical repair fraud is surging in Japan, with victims lured through online ads.

Recently, damage caused by unscrupulous contractors exploiting everyday household problems has been on the rise in Japan. One of the most prominent examples is repair work involving household electrical breaker panels. It is difficult to see through a contractor’s bad intentions, and there are “traps” lurking in internet searches, too. Looking into the methods used in these scams reveals just how they work.

At the end of March 2025, a 67-year-old woman in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward was left bewildered. Perhaps because the switches were broken, the lights in her kitchen and Japanese-style room would not turn on. Her eldest daughter, 40, searched online and quickly found a repair company. Its website said, “Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” and advertised that problems could be “solved by professionals the same day.” She thought it would be OK, so she called the toll-free number of the company, “Mach Denki Shuri” (Mach electric repair). An hour later, a worker arrived.

By her account, he did not seem clumsy. After looking at the lights and saying there was “nothing wrong,” the worker checked the breakers in the panel and showed the woman something like a measuring device. It displayed “130 volts.”

“That’s an abnormal reading. You should get it fixed,” he said. The cost, he told her, would be “380,000 yen” (around $2,400). The woman thought that was far too high, but the worker said, “Normally it would cost even more. I’m giving you a discount at 380,000 yen.” Having little choice, she handed over the 180,000 yen (about $1,130) she had on hand. “I’ll transfer the rest,” she said. The worker nodded, and the repair began. But she felt “something was off,” and then she suddenly recalled something.

Several years earlier, she had had the breaker panel repaired. She remembered it costing about 50,000 yen (roughly $310).

So, just to be safe, she called her husband, 66, who was at work. He agreed to the repair, but his co-workers were suspicious. “That sounds strange. You should go home right away,” they told him, so he returned with an employee from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO). The TEPCO worker listened to what had happened and said, “A normal household doesn’t get to 130 volts.” Her husband then called the police, and an officer came as well.

The T-shirt-clad worker, who had been about to finish the repair, panicked. “I’ll give it back,” he said, referring to the 180,000 yen the woman had paid. In the end, he shoved the cash into the mailbox at the woman’s home and left.

A year later, in April 2026, four men aged 21 to 31, including that worker, were arrested by police on suspicion of fraud and attempted fraud.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s organized crime countermeasures division, the four stood accused of trying to or actually swindling cash ranging from 100,000 yen to 520,000 yen (approx. $630 to $3,300) from people in their 20s to 50s living in Tokyo, between April and May 2025. Their tactic was to cite electrical trouble as a reason to demand the replacement of breakers.

From March through June 2025, they took on 246 jobs across Tokyo and six surrounding prefectures in the Kanto region, including Saitama and Kanagawa. They are believed to have made about 47 million yen (some $294,000) in sales, and there was even a case in which one victim paid 1.4 million yen (roughly $8,800).

“They don’t pick specific targets; instead, they wait for calls to come in, much like a spider spinning its web,” one investigative source said. “Once a request comes in, they play on people’s fears, do unnecessary work and slap them

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