HOKKAIDO (TR) – Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested a 31-year-old man and 6 others in Sapporo City for allegedly swindling victims out of over 900 million yen by way of an overpriced telemarketing scheme often called the “crab-crab scam,” experiences Fuji News Network (Sep. 2).
Hokuto Uchiyama and his six accomplices have been arrested and despatched to prosecutors between July and August. Operating underneath firm names corresponding to “Kita no Miyako” and “Hokusho Suisan,” the ring is accused of cold-calling residents and tricking them into shopping for vastly overpriced seafood.
To nook their victims, the suspects would typically lie, claiming, “You’ve ordered from us before,” or use high-pressure gross sales pitches like, “We are holding a Hokkaido product exhibition right now. We’ll send you more seafood than you can eat.”
Police imagine the syndicate efficiently focused roughly 42,000 folks throughout Japan.
Bundles of seafood
The gang offered bundles of seafood — together with snow crab, salmon, squid, and Atka mackerel — for exorbitant costs, typically charging 100,000 yen for a single set.
However, native seafood specialists say the products have been virtually nugatory. Kenichi Shimamura, supervisor of a Sapporo fish market, scoffed when proven a 100,000-yen bundle recovered from the scammers.
“That is ridiculously high. This entire set absolutely isn’t even worth 10,000 yen,” Shimamura mentioned. “I wouldn’t even buy that freezer-burned crab to begin with.”
“Hokkaido seafood is tempting”
One sufferer, a person in his 70s from Aichi Prefecture, recounted receiving a name in January. The scammers initially provided him a seafood set for 30,000 yen. When he refused, they slashed the value to fifteen,000 yen, promising him a deal he “wouldn’t regret.”
“Hokkaido seafood is tempting,” the person admitted. But upon receiving a meager seven-item package deal, actuality set in. “I thought, ‘I’ve been scammed.’ It probably wasn’t even worth 5,000 yen.”
The National Consumer Affairs Center is urging the general public to flatly refuse suspicious gross sales calls. If undesirable seafood arrives by way of a cash-on-delivery service, officers advise residents to clarify the scenario to the courier, refuse the supply completely, and withhold fee.