Call recorders keep phone scammers at bay, prevent Tokyo’s elderly being conned
Devices attached to pensioners’ landlines play a message to anyone who calls, warning them their conversation will be recorded
Every elderly person in Tokyo is being issued with a free device that plugs into their home phone and issues a warning to would-be scammers that their call is being recorded.
The initiative is the latest move in a campaign against cold callers who try to deceive people out of their life savings.
Hundreds of the call recorders have already been installed in the homes of elderly people in the capital and authorities across the city’s 23 wards are aiming to have every pensioner connected to the system by the end of March next year.
The equipment is plugged into a standard telephone and automatically plays a message to any caller. Only when the message has finished does the phone ring for the householder to pick up.
The initiative is clearly needed as – despite the problem of phone fraudsters being around for more than two decades and frequent police campaigns warning people to beware of cold callers asking for money – new statistics suggest the message is not getting through.