“The Electricity at My Home Was Cut Off”: 38-Year-Old Man Arrested for Joining a Dark Job Scheme Reveals How Recruiters Target People in Financial Distress

Suspected receiver in an “It’s Me” scam

Around 8:30 a.m. on September 3, suspects who were being referred to prosecutors that day emerged from the transport entrance of Nerima Police Station. The first to walk out was a short-haired man wearing black-rimmed glasses. At first glance, he looked like an ordinary, serious office worker, and nothing about him suggested that he had swindled a large sum of money from an elderly woman through an underground job scam. The man walked with his head down and his eyes lowered throughout.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Nerima Police Station rearrested Kenta Arakawa (38), a part-time worker from Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, on suspicion of fraud.

“The latest arrest stems from allegations that on July 22, he called an elderly woman in her 80s in Nishitokyo, Tokyo, posing as her son, and told her, ‘I lost the bag containing documents I need for a business transaction,’ before allegedly swindling her out of ¥1.6 million in cash. Arakawa was arrested and indicted in August on suspicion of using a similar method to swindle ¥500,000 from a woman in her 90s in Nerima Ward.

“According to police, Arakawa has reportedly said, ‘I was instructed by someone I met on Instagram’ and ‘The electricity at my home had been cut off, so I applied for an underground job to earn money for living expenses.’ Police believe he was a receiver for a special-fraud group and are investigating the case in detail,” said a social affairs reporter for a national newspaper.

The incident involves the same “It’s Me” scam method that has been repeated countless times. Special fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated in their methods, with 27,832 cases reported in 2025, a 32.3% increase from the previous year. While new methods frequently make headlines, old-fashioned tactics still appear to be widespread.

What stands out is Arakawa’s stated motive for getting involved in an underground job: “I was struggling financially.”In recent years, there have been a series of cases in which people were arrested after becoming involved in underground jobs for similar reasons.

In June 2025, an unemployed man, then 67, was arrested on suspicion of attempting to defraud an 80-year-old woman in Ota Ward of ¥3 million by posing as her son’s acquaintance. The man reportedly said, “I only received ¥40,000 to ¥50,000 as payment for receiving a package. I didn’t know it contained cash.” He was believed to have been a receiver for a special-fraud group. At the time, Nippon TV reported that the man had applied in response to an email titled “For People Who Are Having Financial Difficulties” and subsequently became a receiver.

A man in his 70s from Hiroshima City who was arrested and indicted in September 2025 had been living on a pension and welfare benefits while carrying debt. At some point in 2024, he responded to a side-job recruitment message sent to his mobile phone via text message and unknowingly became involved in an underground job, participating in a refund scam. He reportedly transferred ¥4.55 million that had been deposited into his bank account by the tax office to an account belonging to a fraud group. His payment was reportedly ¥50,000.

Middle-aged and older unemployed people with debt are in demand?

Has there long been a tendency for adults who should know better—particularly those struggling financially—to be drawn into underground jobs? We spoke with Yukio Ishihara, a journalist specializing in Japan’s underworld.

“Recruitment through social media has declined recently, but I have interviewed around 100 recruiters while posing as someone applying for an underground job. They know they are involved in crime, so if you approach them pretending to be a student or an ordinary company employee, they will not tell you the details of the job unless you show them things like an employee ID, driver’s license, or passport, and provide information about your parents and siblings at your family home.

However, if you tell them, ‘I’m an unemployed middle-aged or older person with gambling debts, and I just want to somehow cover this month’s rent and interest payments,’ they will immediately open up to you. Even without revealing any of your personal information, they’ll say things like, ‘Oh, you have debt? Do you know about receivers and money runners?’ or ‘Do you own a suit?’ They’ll readily tell you what the job involves.

According to what they tell me, there are many people who are desperate for money in the short term because they have debts or other financial problems, and such people are apparently ideal recruits because they are willing to do anything.”

Recruiters reportedly use carefully chosen words to further entice people who are willing to do anything for quick money.

“For an unemployed middle-aged man who has been laid off, for example, you might say, ‘I have about ¥600,000 in debt. Do you think I can handle it?’—an amount that would be difficult for him to repay. They’ll respond, ‘If you work seriously for us, you’ll not only pay off your debt, you’ll even be able to save money and take an overseas trip.’ Then the person who is desperate for money right away thinks, ‘All right, I’ll do my best,’ and gets motivated to go along with it.

Of course, the people who actually pay them are those higher up the chain, such as the organizers giving the instructions. At first, they pay generously, but before long they start making excuses and stop paying every time. Eventually, the person gets arrested, and the matter is left unresolved in most cases.

Even so, someone who has been working desperately at a part-time job but still couldn’t afford the rent can easily be tempted if they suddenly receive around ¥50,000 for just three hours of work. I think the middle-aged and older people who have been arrested for underground jobs typically fell into this kind of pattern,” Ishihara said.

When people are pushed into desperate financial situations, the lure of crime can quietly begin to creep into their lives.

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