Japanese police create fake support scam payment cards to warn victims

Japanese police in Fukui prefecture deployed dummy prepaid cards labeled for malware removal and late fees across 34 convenience stores to disrupt tech support and payment fraud targeting the elderly. Trained staff use the cards as intervention prompts, which has already prevented at least two scams and supports investigations amid rising regional losses (about $7.5M in 2023). The effort is a proactive anti-fraud measure rather than a specific cyber incident report.