A Nepali student and part-time convenience store clerk, Ishara Ale Magar (26), and another clerk, Karna Bahadur Katri (25), received a letter of appreciation from the Niigata Police Station for preventing a fake billing scam at their store.
Though unaware of the specific tactics behind Japan's recent wave of specialized frauds, the pair strictly followed a certain rule and coordinated in Nepali to avert the crime. What was this rule? The two work at the “FamilyMart in central Niigata City. Around 10:00 PM on September 10th, a man in his 70s entered the store. He purchased three consecutive ¥10,000 Apple Gift Cards, then approached Ale at the register, stating, “I need ¥300,000 worth to buy a computer.”
At that moment, Ale remembered a rule given to them by store manager Yuki Sato (39): “Confirm purchases of 50,000 yen or more in cards with the manager.” Ale told Katri, who was just about to start the night shift, “Call the manager” in Nepali, and informed the man in Japanese, “We need to confirm this, so please wait.” However, the man became angry that he couldn't make the purchase immediately and started yelling.
Katori-san saw an opening when the man was on the phone with someone else and immediately contacted Sato-san. She and Ale-san worked together to calm the shouting man, trying to keep him there until Sato-san arrived.
About 20 minutes after the man entered the store, police officers arrived after being notified by Sato-san. It was discovered that the man had received a frake call from someone claiming to be from NTT, stating, “You have unpaid mobile phone charges. If you don't pay today, you'll be taken to court.” Based on past experience, Mr. Sato had been urging staff to strictly enforce the rule that purchases over ¥50,000 by card carry a high risk of fraud.
Both Mr. Ale and Ms. Katri have been in Japan for about four years but had no prior knowledge of this specific type of fraud. Receiving recommendations from Niigata Police Station Chief Hiroyuki Kuraishi on the 14th of this month, they smiled and said, “We were able to stop it because of the rule. It was scary to handle, but we are glad we could prevent the man from becoming a fraud victim.”