An ATM Never Pays Money Back: Japan’s Refund Fraud Fell 10.0% in Cases but Rose 7.2% in Losses

Hello. This is Shemihaza, your sentinel.
Today is about a scam you can stop with one sentence.
Quoting Japan’s National Police Agency: "Money is never returned to you at an ATM. Ever."
Knowing that one line is enough to break refund fraud partway through.

The occasion is yesterday’s figures.
On 2 October 2026 the agency published provisional statistics on recognised cases and clearances of organised fraud up to the end of August 2026.
★Within them, <strong>refund fraud moves oddly.</strong> Recognised cases fell to 2,058, down 10.0% year on year. Losses rose to 4.65bn yen, up 7.2%.
Fewer cases, more money.

★The average per case went from about 1.90m to about 2.26m yen (my own calculation)

The agency publishes case counts and loss totals, not an average, so I did the division myself. Here is the arithmetic.
This year, to end of August: 4.65bn yen divided by 2,058 cases = about 2.26m yen.
Same period last year: 4.34bn yen divided by 2,287 cases = about 1.90m yen.
Last year’s figures are back-calculated from the published "+310m yen" and "&minus;229 cases".
So the average per case is up about 19%.

★Two cautions about that number.
First, losses are published to the nearest 100m yen, so last year’s 4.34bn carries rounding. The 1.90m figure is approximate.
Second, this does not mean each victim now loses more. It means the average across cases the police recognised went up. Why it went up is not something these statistics say.

★And refund fraud is not the only type with fewer cases but larger losses.
Fake police fraud does the same: 6,346 cases, down 4.1%, against losses of 72.86bn yen, up 27.0%.
Refund fraud is the one covered here because a single fact stops it.

The figures by type, to the end of August 2026 (provisional)

Across all such fraud, recognised cases came to 29,687 (+14.4%) and losses to 236.07bn yen (+33.2%). The main types, reproduced from the published table.

<table>
<tr><th>Type</th><th>Cases (year on year)</th><th>Losses (year on year)</th></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Refund fraud</strong></td><td><strong>2,058 (&minus;229 / &minus;10.0%)</strong></td><td><strong>4.65bn yen (+310m / +7.2%)</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td>Fake police fraud</td><td>6,346 (&minus;274 / &minus;4.1%)</td><td>72.86bn yen (+15.51bn / +27.0%)</td></tr>
<tr><td>SNS investment fraud</td><td>7,097 (+2,347 / +49.4%)</td><td>93.74bn yen (+32.80bn / +53.8%)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fictitious billing fraud</td><td>4,211 (+504 / +13.6%)</td><td>9.75bn yen (+1.35bn / +16.0%)</td></tr>
<tr><td>SNS romance fraud</td><td>3,506 (+13 / +0.4%)</td><td>32.58bn yen (+250m / +0.8%)</td></tr>
<tr><td>"It's me" fraud</td><td>2,739 (+474 / +20.9%)</td><td>10.42bn yen (+1.69bn / +19.3%)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Deposit fraud</td><td>667 (&minus;508 / &minus;43.2%)</td><td>600m yen (&minus;690m / &minus;53.3%)</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>All such fraud</strong></td><td><strong>29,687 (+3,732 / +14.4%)</strong></td><td><strong>236.07bn yen (+58.84bn / +33.2%)</strong></td></tr>
</table>

★One caution on reading the year-on-year columns.
The agency reorganised its categories from 2026. The release states that it "positioned the sharply increasing fake police fraud as an independent type" and "positioned SNS investment and romance fraud as types of organised fraud".
It also notes that clearance counts for fake police fraud only begin as a statistic in 2026, with the 2025 figures distributed among other types.
Where a category changed, the year-on-year comparison is not like for like.

Read the scripted call the agency publishes

The agency’s SOS47 site publishes a sample call for refund fraud. This is not an invention; it is what a public body puts out under "watch for calls like this". Quoting it.

• ▸Caller: "Part of your pension payment went unpaid, so please complete the procedure to receive it."
  → The person thinks: did a notice come about that?
• ▸Caller: "We posted you a blue envelope earlier, you haven’t checked it? The repayment deadline is today, which is why I am calling."
  → The person thinks: that’s bad, maybe I missed it
• ▸★Caller: "You can complete it at a nearby ATM, so take your mobile phone and head to an ATM now. Call me when you arrive and I will talk you through the buttons."
• ▸Caller: "I will explain the steps, so press the buttons exactly as I say."
  → Following along actually completes a transfer of your money to the criminal

★The third line is the fork.
The agency defines the method as "posing as a procedure needed for a tax refund or similar, having the victim operate an ATM, and obtaining unlawful gain through an account-to-account transfer".
Nobody takes the money from you. You transfer it yourself. That is refund fraud.
The impersonated bodies are listed as city offices, tax offices and pension offices, and the pretext as overpaid medical costs or insurance premiums, or part of a pension left unpaid.

What to do today (the agency’s five measures)

• ✓★Learn the line: money is never returned to you at an ATM, ever. That is the agency’s wording. Once you are told to go to an ATM, you can hang up without weighing the story at all
• ✓Call your nearest police station back to check. The point is to use a number you looked up yourself, not the one the caller gave you
• ✓Set your mobile to reject calls from unknown numbers
• ✓Block international calls on the landline. The agency writes that fraud abusing overseas numbers is rising sharply, and that people who never use a landline for overseas calls can apply, by phone or online, to suspend international calling
• ✓★Set a low daily ATM transfer limit. This does not stop the call; it caps the damage if you do press the buttons
• ✓Use caller-ID display and anonymous-call rejection. The agency writes that "above all, not talking to the criminal" is what matters

Three lines to pass on

• ▸A call claiming to be a city, tax or pension office that says "you can do it at an ATM" is fraud. The agency writes that money is never returned to you at an ATM, ever
• ▸The tell is being rushed: "the repayment deadline is today". In the provisional figures to end of August 2026, refund fraud came to 2,058 cases and 4.65bn yen &mdash; cases down 10.0%, but losses up 7.2%
• ▸To check, call back on a number you looked up, never the one you were given. In Japan, the police advice line is #9110, and if money has been paid the consumer hotline is 188

Where to get help

For the stage where you cannot tell whether a crime has occurred, Japan’s police advice line is #9110. The agency page used as a source here carries that number too.
If money has been paid or a contract signed, the consumer hotline is 188, which connects to the consumer affairs centre for your area.
If you hold information about offenders or their premises, there is an anonymous reporting line on 0120-924-839, which the agency lists on the same page.
All of these numbers are for use inside Japan.

Sources