A 29-year-old firefighter, who posed as the son of a woman in her 80s, stared at the press and took a photo.

It was a little after 8:00 a.m. when the man emerged from the police station. When he was instructed by the station staff on the route to the bus, his face, which had remained down until then, changed drastically. He stared at the nearby press, including the photographer for this magazine, with an unfaithful expression on his face.

On March 25, the Nogata Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Hiroaki Taguchi, 29, of Sodegaura City, Chiba Prefecture, on suspicion of attempted fraud. Taguchi is a firefighter working for the Ichihara City Fire Department in the same prefecture. He allegedly tried to defraud an elderly woman out of her cash.

In late March, the suspect pretended to be the son of Ms. A, a woman in her 80s living in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, and told her over the phone that he was her son and that he had gotten her pregnant. I got my adulterous partner pregnant. I need 3 million yen to settle the case.

Mr. A became suspicious and checked with his son’s wife. Mr. A, together with the police, took Taguchi’s offer and carried out a “pretending to have been cheated” strategy.

(A reporter from a national newspaper’s social section) “I had debts and wanted a job where I could earn money in a short period of time.

On March 25, Mr. A prepared fake money and waited on a street in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he was told to go. The suspect, Taguchi, dressed in a suit and disguised as a lawyer, appeared and was caught red-handed by waiting police officers just as he was about to receive the fake money from Ms. A. The police investigated the case, but found that Taguchi was not a lawyer.

Taguchi admitted to the crime, saying, “I had a debt and needed money for a short period of time.

I had debts and was looking for a job on social networking sites to earn money in a short period of time. I ended up being the recipient of a scam.

Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.

Some people are deceived by words such as ‘white-collar jobs’ and apply for them. In this case, the suspect was not aware that it was a special scam at first, but the instructor was able to obtain the suspect’s identification and family structure, and was forced to deceive an elderly person and take his money.

In this case, Taguchi has no excuse. He knew it was a scam and committed the crime to get the money. Firefighters are public servants. It is hard to understand why he was so deep in debt that he applied for a “black market job,” despite the fact that he is paid a stable salary.

The police are also investigating the person who gave the Taguchi suspect instructions and other background information.