Chinese international students in Japan impersonate police and are arrested, while some students stage a virtual kidnapping to extort ransom from their parents?

A Chinese student studying in Japan was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for allegedly impersonating a Chinese police officer to commit fraud. The student is suspected of colluding with an accomplice last month to defraud a Chinese man in his 30s of about 500 yen. This incident is yet another typical case of hometown people deceiving their fellow countrymen, a sad situation where people who speak Chinese are scamming their compatriots in a foreign country.

According to reports from Japanese media, 22-year-old Zhong Jiacheng ( is suspected of defrauding a Chinese man living in Tokyo last month. He first called the man to inform him that his phone number had been stolen and was involved in a fraud case, then impersonated a Chinese police officer, convincing the man to sign a document agreeing to cooperate with the investigation. The entire incident is very similar to the tactics used by fraud groups in Hong Kong impersonating Chinese police officers to target Chinese students. BBC has interviewed two victims to share their experiences.

Japanese police said that the Chinese student told the victim that a warrant for his arrest had been issued by the Chinese Public Security, and that he needed to pay money first. The victim reported this to the Japanese police, who discovered that the phone number provided by the suspect was fake. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police believe that there may be a fraud ring behind this student and are currently conducting further investigations.

Due to the crackdown on telecom fraud parks in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia, fraud groups are now revamping their methods, targeting Chinese international students around the world. After exploiting them, they absorb these students into their fraud organizations to deceive others. Recently, it has even been reported that international students are being used in a new scam where they "self-direct" their own kidnappings to take photos and videos to trick their parents into paying ransom.

Chinese students studying abroad are the targets for fraud groups to lock in and recruit.

A large number of Chinese international students have been sent to study in Japan by their families, resulting in the peculiar phenomenon where there are more Chinese students than Japanese students in some Japanese high schools. Recently, Chinese international students were involved in a fraud case against their fellow countrymen. These students have become the "tools" that fraud groups best exploit; after being deceived by these groups, they may also be absorbed into the fraud rings to help scam others. To prevent the expansion of fraud groups in Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has specially produced promotional materials in Simplified Chinese to inform students about the methods used by these fraud groups.

Telecom scams impersonating the Chinese police and embassies are prevalent.

Chinese citizens living in Japan often receive fraudulent calls pretending to be from the Chinese Public Security Bureau and embassies asking for money. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department specifically reminds Chinese students studying abroad that if they receive a scam call claiming to involve certain cases and asking them to contact their parents to pay money to prove their innocence, "it is all a scam." If you receive such a call, make sure to report it to the police and contact your family, and do not answer unknown calls.

Chinese international students are exploited by a scam group for a "self-directed and self-performed" virtual kidnapping.

In addition to the frequent reports of Chinese international students being involved in fraud incidents in Japan, there have recently been multiple cases worldwide of Chinese international students being coerced by fraud groups into self-directed and self-performed kidnappings, demanding ransom from their parents. This type of fraud is referred to as "virtual kidnapping." According to reports from Singapore's Asia News Network, the new type of scam particularly targets Chinese international students, convincing them to take selfies while being supposedly kidnapped and demanding ransom from their parents in China.

One case involves a high school student named Zhuang Kai from Hangzhou, China, who went to study in the United States and lived with a host family. After five months, he went missing. Zhuang Kai's family in China received photos of him being kidnapped and held captive, along with a ransom letter. The entire incident was fabricated, a scam used by a fraud group to extort money from his parents. The fraud group even impersonated "Chinese police" by wearing uniforms and appeared in front of the student overseas, convincing the naive international student that he was really involved in some cases and needed to follow their instructions. A common point in such cases is that students are usually asked to first transfer money from their own bank accounts to the fraud group. Once the bank accounts are emptied, the fraud group will then coerce the students into taking selfies or videos of themselves in a kidnapping scenario to demand money from their parents.

The tricks of scams are increasing, making it easier for students to be exploited by scam groups and become accomplices. Now, Japanese universities and high schools are filled with Chinese international students, prompting the Tokyo Metropolitan Police to pay special attention to cases of Chinese international students scamming their fellow countrymen. Although Taiwanese students studying in Japan are fewer in number than Chinese students, they also need to be particularly vigilant.

This article discusses how Chinese students studying in Japan impersonated public security and were arrested, as well as students who staged a virtual kidnapping to extort ransom from their parents. Originally appeared in Chain News ABMedia.