Been reading up on all the stories of various people, tourists, and new residents alike, following the touts and ending up drugged or threatened at a scam bar to pay crazy amounts. What I noticed is that in each of these cases, the amount lost was between 200,000 and 500,000 yen.
It’s a little surprising to me that it is so consistent and in that range. Like, these bars could just charge 40,000-60,000, and it would be small enough of a scam that people would brush it off as an expensive visit, and people wouldn’t be as wary, and multiple more people would fall for the touts.
Or they could charge much larger amounts, like 3-4 million, and hold the victim hostage with a computer, maybe beat them a little, until the victim agrees to wire transfer the money to an offshore account / calls a family member to do the same. Not like the police would care.
Hope I didn’t give them any ideas with this post lol.
11 comments
Usually you’ll get drugged and dragged to an ATM to withdraw the maximum amount. Or it’s the maximum amount they can charge a card without flagging it.
Sounds like a perfect excuse for a field-trip. Please report back.
Maybe they do it to avoid any kind of automatic fraud prevention mechanisms kicking in from the bank or card companies? I.e. big enough amount for them but not so big that it creates issues with the transaction.
In other cases I guess that is the kind of sum many would have directly available on their card.
On the high end, that’s more or less the
standard daily withdrawal limit for cards
Why not lower? That’s probably the highest minimum amount they’ve worked out in terms of risk/reward. No shortage of dumbass
tourists and college students to prey on, either
so they take
>Or they could charge much larger amounts, like 3-4 million, **and hold the victim hostage with a computer, maybe beat them a little**, until the victim agrees to wire transfer the money to an offshore account / calls a family member to do the same. **Not like the police would care.**
People in this sub really love to portray the police as worthless piles of shit who wouldn’t lift a finger no matter what happened aren’t they?
Sure you are right. The reason those scammers spare their victims is solely due to their pure, angelic hearts, not because they are scared of the useless police at all.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go beat up some foreigner’s ass and ask them to hand over the money, because as you said, the police couldn’t care less.
I don’t know how all banks work but in my experience, internationally wire transferring large amounts of money like 3 or 4 million (yen or dollars?) wouldnt finish with a click of a mouse button. It probably takes 5 days during which someone can call the bank to cancel. So the touts would have to imprison the guy that long until it clears.
Because they know their business won’t last long. Their aim is always getting as much cash as possible in a short period of time. Credit takes too much time to actually get cash, and most banks have limitations on the amount you can withdraw using the ATM. And 200K-500K might be a justifiable range for bars. You know there are crazy expensive boozes. So, they might think charging 200K-500K could reduce the risk of getting arrested anytime soon.
Let’s say you are not drugged, but at the end of the night the patron comes up with an insanely high bill. What should you do?
If you’re going to risk jail time, go big.
And that’s big for your average schmuck tourist, apparently.
I gave me a mental image of a bunch of touts in white lab coats at some academic meeting, all shouting and one man is like “Gentlemen, Gentlemen! We must decide on an amount that will profit us, while shaming the guy who thought he would get to see titties, but not so much he goes past the local Koban.”
*hushed murmurs of agreement*
The amount of those “touts” I saw a few weeks ago was a joke. During COVID, I saw one guy. Now, they’re everywhere. Like a new virus has replaced COVID in Tokyo.
At least they are very easy to spot like, let’s be honest.
What are the reviews like for these places on Google maps?