Cellular Crime Warnings

Spotted on Future Perfect, a poster warning (elderly) people of phone crimes.

A Japanese variation of the Brazilian virtual kidnap crime where a (random) person is called and informed that their loved grand/son/daughter has got into trouble/been in a car accident/accused of sexual harassment and that they can buy their way out of trouble if only they can transfer money to an account.

In Brazil it's common for the money to be transferred as pre-paid credit to a phone account, in Japan the victim is given instructions to go to an ATM machine to make the transfer.

emily | 2:21 PM | Spam, Viruses and Hoaxes |
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