Key facts
- Victims in Japan have lost tens of millions of dollars in gold bar scams since 2025.
- Scammers pose as police or tax officials to instruct victims to convert cash into gold bars.
- Total damages from these scams exceeded 10 billion yen over the past two years.
- Authorities believe increased scrutiny on bank transfers has led to this new scam method.
- Three Taiwanese nationals were arrested for defrauding a man of 115 million yen in gold bullion.
Victims in Japan have lost tens of millions of dollars in a new wave of scams involving gold bullion since 2025, as authorities believe stricter monitoring of bank transfers is pushing criminals to adopt new methods. Scammers, often posing as police or National Tax Agency officials, instruct victims to convert their savings into gold bars, which are then collected by agents. This tactic aims to circumvent traditional fraud detection methods that focus on cash transfers. The total damage from these gold-related scams reached approximately 5.8 billion yen in 2025 and an additional 4.5 billion yen in the first five months of 2026, bringing the cumulative loss over two years to over 10 billion yen. Recent cases include an 80-year-old woman in Tokyo who was swindled out of 1 kilogram of gold bars, and the arrest of three Taiwanese nationals for defrauding a Kyoto man of 115 million yen in gold bullion. Similar scams have also been reported in the United States and Singapore, prompting international law enforcement warnings.