Anatomy of a Fraud: How Professional Groups Run Side-Job Scams with Closers and Lawyer Blockers

“Earn 500,000 yen a month with just one smartphone.”

“Get same-day payment just by answering a simple survey.”

Lured by the sweet promises overflowing on social media, many young people end up burdened with massive debts due to side-job scams. The methods are astonishingly sophisticated and organized, with professional groups lurking behind the scenes to ensure victims are completely sealed. There are closers who finalize the contracts, and lawyer blockers who prevent victims from seeking legal help. What is this refined scam scheme that pushes young people into a pit of debt?

The trap of side-job scams begins with advertisements on social media or the internet. Their cunning methods are documented in detail in warnings issued by the Consumer Affairs Agency and in the lawsuits filed by actual victims. According to these, the initial advertisements often feature eye-catching images such as:

“Ranked No.1 in smartphone side jobs chosen by users.”

From there, victims are guided to add a LINE account as a friend. After registration, the message they receive from a member of the fraud group is not about a high-priced contract, but rather a small payment request:

“Please purchase the Item Book (e-book) you’ll use for work at a special price of 500 yen.”

This tiny payment of just 500 yen is the entry point into the scam’s trap. Once the purchase is completed, the next message follows:

“To receive your earnings, a phone explanation is required.”

It’s this phone call that marks the real start of the scam.

On the other end of the line appears a smooth-talking professional who gives the impression of being a trustworthy person. But in reality, this individual is what lawyers familiar with such cases call a closer — someone who skillfully manipulates victims psychologically and specializes in closing high-value contracts.

Fear of closers, professionals who complete contracts

Daichi Sakuma, representative attorney of Daichi Sogo Law Office, who is well-versed in this scam scheme, explains the methods as follows. (All quoted passages below are statements by Attorney Sakuma.)

“The tactics are extremely sophisticated. First, they keep the victim on the phone for two to three hours straight, giving them no time to think. They string together definitive statements such as, ‘If you join this support plan you will definitely make money,’ ‘You can earn ¥3,000,000 a month,’ and ‘You won’t lose — there’s even a money-back guarantee,’ pressuring the victim to sign up for an expensive support plan.”

What the fraud group offers victims is an expensive support plan under the pretense of helping with side jobs. According to a list of plans published by the Consumer Affairs Agency for one operator, the contents escalate with the price. The cheaper plans provide only LINE support, but the high-priced plans costing hundreds of thousands (to millions) of yen include seemingly substantial services such as one-on-one coaching by a dedicated advisor and creation of a website for customer acquisition. Prices range from ¥100,000 up to a maximum of ¥5,500,000. Naturally, few young people can pay such sums in cash on the spot.

Even if a victim tries to refuse saying, “I don’t have the money,” the closer won’t let them go.

They repeat false explanations like, “Even if you borrow from a consumer finance company, you’ll make the money from the side job and be able to repay it immediately, so it’s fine,” or, “If you can’t earn money within 60 days we will refund ¥3,500,000 in a lump sum,” numbing the victim’s resistance to taking on debt. Once the victim agrees, they are instructed to install a screen-sharing app such as AnyDesk on their smartphone. This places the victim’s phone under surveillance so that the group can more or less forcibly proceed with loan applications to consumer lenders.

On the application screens they instruct victims to enter an untruthful loan purpose like‘living expenses and to inflate their declared income to make passing the screening easier. In this way victims are forced to take on loans of several million yen they normally wouldn’t be allowed to borrow, and they transfer the entire sum into bank accounts specified by the fraud group.

However, normally it is impossible for young people with low incomes to borrow several million yen from consumer finance companies at once. How does this become possible? Attorney Sakuma points out a clever tactic that exploits loopholes in the law.

“Under the law, lenders are bound by the ‘total volume regulation,’ which limits loans to one-third of an individual’s annual income. But the fraud groups keep the phone line open and, within a short time, submit loan screening applications to multiple lenders simultaneously. This exploits the system gap where it takes some time for credit information to be shared among lenders; each lender judges that the applicant has ‘no borrowings at other companies’ and proceeds to make loans one after another. That’s how victims end up burdened with large debts that should have been impossible.”

What is attorney encumbrance?

Once the contract and payment are completed, the fraud group immediately begins destroying evidence. First, they instruct victims to delete the chat history from the LINE account used for communication. Furthermore, even if victims realize they’ve been deceived and demand a refund, the scammers have another tactic ready — the so-called lawyer blocker.

“They have a system designed to prevent victims from consulting with lawyers,” an expert explains. “For example, they may refund only part of the damages and have the victim sign a settlement agreement containing a clause stating that no further claims or obligations exist. Once such a document is signed, lawyers unfamiliar with this type of fraud often tell victims, ‘Since you’ve already settled, there’s no way to recover the money,’ and refuse the case. When told this by a lawyer, most victims have no choice but to give up.”

Of course, this lawyer blocker tactic doesn’t work against professionals who fully understand these schemes and have legal countermeasures.

On September 19, the Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling ordering compensation in a case involving Wa Co., Ltd., a company that the Consumer Affairs Agency had specifically warned about on June 26, 2025. In that lawsuit, a victim sought about 3.54 million yen in damages from Wa, and the court fully accepted the plaintiff’s claim.

In this case, consumer centers across Japan received 110 complaints, with total damages amounting to approximately 150 million yen. Attorney Sakuma, who handled the case, also received a flood of consultations — 47 victims in total, with losses reaching around 100 million yen. However, Sakuma believes that even the representative of Wa was merely a pawn in a much larger fraudulent operation.

“It’s impossible for one person to construct such a large-scale, systematic scam from scratch. There’s no doubt that a professional group with strong organization and a sophisticated fraud scheme exists behind the scenes. The representative of Wa was, in a sense, played — a disposable scapegoat for the organization.”

In fact, several other side-job scam groups using similar methods have been identified, and they may all trace back to the same parent organization.

“The damages from Wa alone that my office handled amount to 100 million yen. Across Japan, there are many more victims — people who don’t yet realize they’ve been deceived or have simply given up. There are other side-job scams using the same tactics, and the total damage across the entire industry may very well have ballooned into the billions of yen.”

Clear Reasons Why Young People in Their 20s Are Targets

Many of the victims are people in their twenties — and there’s a clear reason why they’re targeted.

“Young people with unstable incomes and anxiety about their future tend to feel an urgent need to change their situation right away,” says Attorney Sakuma. “That sense of urgency clouds their judgment, making them more susceptible to the temptation of easy money. Plus, since they use social media on a daily basis, they’re far more likely to encounter scam advertisements.”

In the end, what’s left are unprofitable side jobs and debts amounting to several million yen. Some young victims, unable to repay, have even been forced to declare bankruptcy. The Consumer Affairs Agency, which has issued public warnings about these cases, urges anyone who suspects they’ve fallen victim to such scams to immediately call the Consumer Hotline at 188.

It’s also vital to preserve all records of communication with the fraud group, as they can serve as crucial evidence in future negotiations or lawsuits. Attorney Sakuma emphasizes the fundamental mindset necessary to avoid falling into such traps in the first place:

“This is very simple,” he says. “There’s no way that easy, high-earning opportunities are just lying around on the open internet for anyone to find. If such methods truly existed, the companies wouldn’t spend money on ads to recruit others — they’d just do it themselves. The best defense is to return to the basic truth that every offer that sounds too good to be true always has a hidden catch.”

The internet is overflowing with extraordinary money-making claims. But just beyond a single click, professional fraudsters lie in wait — their intricate traps ready to ensnare the next victim.