Japan

Older people lose the most money, but young adults are now hit far more often. In 2025 people aged 65 and over were 51.3% of cases, down 14.0 points, and 59.2% of the money. Cases among people in their 20s and 30s rose from 2,612 to 6,203 in a year, driven by callers posing as police: victims in their 30s were the most frequent, while people in their 70s lost the most. In scams that start on social networks about 60% of victims are men, mostly in their 40s to 60s.

Investment scams begin with banner advertisements (39.7% of cases) or direct messages (37.3%) on Instagram, YouTube, LINE, TikTok, Facebook and X, and about 90% of those reached are moved into a LINE group. Romance scams begin on matching apps (32.7%), Instagram (22.8%) and Facebook (18.6%).

The telephone is still the first contact in 78.8% of phone scam cases, 21,940 in 2025, and first contact by mobile phone rose about 2.2 times. Police logged 331,653 calls probing for addresses and savings, and 75.5% of the numbers used in crimes were international. Police found 11 call bases inside Japan in 2025, against 29 in 2024. Police arrested 54 suspects linked to scam bases abroad in 2025, in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia, and Japanese people who worked at such bases told police their passports and phones were taken.

Bank transfers carry most of the money. In 2025 police recorded 16,894 phone scam cases paid by transfer, with 82.3 billion yen lost, 57.8% of the total. Of this, internet banking took 49.5 billion yen, ATMs 26.5 billion and the bank counter 6.2 billion. Cash handed to a courier or collector was 28.5 billion yen, and crypto assets sent by the victim 19.7 billion yen in 1,243 cases, up 927.3%. Crypto took 24.8 billion yen in romance scams and 21.6 billion in investment scams.

Account sellers feed the system: police made arrests in 5,315 cases of selling bank accounts and phones and similar offences, and 3,657 people. Phishing is counted apart, with 2,454,297 reports and 4,747 unauthorised internet banking transfers worth 10.4 billion yen. Staff at banks and convenience stores stopped 17,962 cases in 2025, worth 15.3 billion yen, a prevention rate of 39.8%. Banks and police share data on likely victims: 47 police headquarters and 938 financial institutions are linked.

In September 2025 the Financial Services Agency asked banks to tighten internet banking limits and checks. On phones, about 480,000 procedures to suspend international calls on landlines were completed in 2025, police recommend two apps that screen scam calls, and identity checks by reading the ID card chip are required for mobile contracts opened online from April 2026.

Most lost money does not come back. Under the Remittance Fraud Relief Act, banks freeze accounts used for scams and the Deposit Insurance Corporation publishes notices so that claims on the balance can be paid to victims. In the year to March 2026, notices covered 74,478 frozen accounts holding 14.7 billion yen, and 6.03 billion yen was paid to victims, 82.0% of the money in procedures that ended, against 4.91 billion in the year before. That is about 1.9% of the 325.7 billion yen the police recorded as lost in 2025, although the periods differ.

The Act covers money sent by bank transfer to an account that is still frozen. A payment from an account holding less than 1,000 yen is not made, and 32,869 of the accounts in the notices were in that group. If the balance is smaller than the total claims it is split in proportion to each loss, and the procedure generally takes at least half a year. A victim must apply within a window of at least 30 days.

A second route, a recovery benefit, pays victims from proceeds that a court confiscates. Banks compensate customers for unauthorised internet banking withdrawals under a 2008 Bankers Association agreement: in the year to March 2025, 78.9% of 11,772 decided cases were compensated. Forged or stolen cash cards have their own rules.

In the Ministry of Justice's crime victim survey, 19.2% of people who were scammed told the police, and 4.0% of people were scammed in the year. Counts of reports show where the rest go.

Police handled about 2.77 million consultations of all kinds in 2025 and recognised 72,532 fraud cases. The National Consumer Affairs Center and local consumer centres took 1,006,377 consultations in the year to March 2026, up from 913,355, with about 8,500 on bills for services never used. The Financial Services Agency's user desk received 58,371 consultations in 2025, of which 10,256 were about fraudulent investment offers. The Council of Anti-Phishing Japan, an industry body, received 2,454,297 phishing reports. The police internet hotline analysed 633,036 reports of illegal and harmful online content, and 14,241 posts recruiting people for crime were found.

Police and banks share data through agreements with 938 financial institutions, and from 1 June 2026 the National Police Agency relays enquiries from police to banks to follow victims' money. Recognised fraud cases rose 26.5% in 2025 and consumer consultations 10.2%.

The National Police Agency counts the cases police recognise and the loss recorded in them. Special fraud covers phone scams that obtain cash by transfer, handover or card theft. From 2025 scams that start on social networks, investment and romance, are listed apart, and from 2026 they are counted within it. Card fraud (about 51 billion yen in 2025, from the credit card industry), phishing and unauthorised internet banking transfers sit in other series.

Across all fraud, police recognised 72,532 cases in 2025 against 57,324 in 2024, with about 403 billion yen lost, up 31.1%. They cleared 17,448 cases and arrested 9,486 people, but the clearance rate fell to 24.1% from 28.2%. For phone scams, police cleared 6,575 cases and arrested 2,338 people, and for social network investment and romance scams 630 cases and 397 people. Most arrests, 59.0%, were of people who collect cash and cards. Among cleared cybercrime cases, computer fraud was 1,212 and breaches of the criminal proceeds law 1,012.

Arrests for the main money raising crimes of loose, anonymous criminal groups rose to 6,679 in 2025, 3,075 of them for fraud. Joint investigation teams cleared 535 phone scam cases. In the first eight months of 2026 police cleared 5,443 cases and arrested 1,949 people.

Phone scams in which the caller pretends to be a relative, an official or police dominate. In 2025 this type had 14,489 cases, 52% of phone scam cases, and 113.8 billion yen, 80% of the loss. Within it, fake police scams were 11,014 cases and 100.5 billion yen: callers say the victim's account was used in a crime and tell them to move money for checking. Fictitious fee demands for services never used were 5,706 cases and 13.2 billion yen, and refund scams, where callers say a refund is due and lead victims to an ATM, 3,179 cases and 6.2 billion yen.

Among social network scams, investment scams had 9,523 cases and 128.8 billion yen, and romance scams 5,645 cases and 54.6 billion yen. Their loss per case is the highest, about 12 million yen a case. In 2026 investment scams grew most, to 93.7 billion yen in eight months, up 53.8%, while fake police scams lost 72.9 billion yen. Fake gold bullion deals took 6.0 billion yen in 173 cases, and fake company president emails appeared in December 2025.

Phishing is also common: 2,454,297 reports, with 4,747 unauthorised internet banking transfers. In consumer consultations, online shopping was the leading method, 225,388 in the year to March 2026, and regular purchase traps 98,455.

Japan has a Cabinet committee, written plans and a growing set of links between police, banks and phone companies, but results lag behind. Plans of June 2024 and April 2025 and emergency measures of July 2026 cover protecting people, cutting the supply of offenders and taking away their tools. Police and banks have agreements with 938 financial institutions, 39 prefectures use the Saitama model, in which police tell banks about accounts known to be misused, and a framework to trace and freeze victims' money began with nine banks in June 2026 and has 20 from October. A rule letting banks share information on misused accounts applies from 1 April 2027. Planned steps include a cooling off period before new crypto accounts send to private wallets.

The outcomes are weak. Losses rose 63.6% in 2025 and 33.2% in the first eight months of 2026. The clearance rate for fraud fell to 24.1%, and staff at banks and shops stopped 39.8% of cases, down 9.5 points on 2024. Frozen money paid to victims in the year to March 2026 was 6.03 billion yen, against 325.7 billion lost in 2025.

Bank compensation rules are written for unauthorised withdrawals, so a victim who sends money after a deception relies on the relief law, which covers transfers to frozen accounts. Data only SIM cards need no identity check until the 2026 law takes effect, by government order within a year. The Cabinet itself calls the situation extremely critical.