Her name is AI Ko. She isn’t real. She is an AI, created by the police in Osaka to help educate residents about the rising threat of digital arrest sweeping across Japan.
She speaks in a calm voice, even as she walks viewers through the terrorizing scam that many are falling for.
Is she effective? Time will tell, but the police are resorting to ever more creative ways to educate citizens who are taking the brunt of the $2.1 billion scam epidemic in the country.
Fake Police Officers From Cambodia
Japan’s police are now using AI to teach the public about fraud, at the same time criminals are using the technology to commit it.
In India, the crime is called “Digital Arrest,” but in Japan, it’s called “Fake Police,” where imposters dressed in fake uniforms calling from video rooms in Cambodia keep victims on the phone for hours or days, claiming they have been arrested for crimes that never happened.
Here is a screenshot taken from an actual case of a fake Japanese police officer on a video call with the victim.
How The Fake Police Scam Works
The fake police scam is highly scripted.
It starts with a call you did not expect. A voice claiming to be a police officer tells you that your phone is being used for fraud, that your bank account was opened by criminals, or that you are now a suspect.
Once you are scared, they move you on to Line – a messaging app most of Japan uses every day, and after a few messages, they start a video call.
On camera, the “officer” holds up a police badge and an arrest warrant. In the real scam footage shown in the video, the caller posing as a detective tells the person on the line to read his rank and name aloud so they will trust that the badge is real.
He says it is a secret case. He warns that not all the other suspects have been caught, so the person cannot tell anyone, and that talking to a third party is itself a crime.
From there, the extortion begins. The fake officer says he has to “check” your bank account to prove you are innocent, and that the money will be returned once the case closes, the video explains.
Some people are told to wire money through online banking. Others are told to buy cryptocurrency or prepaid cards, supposedly so the police can hold their funds and stop them from running.
Watch AI Ko And The Actual Digital Arrest Call From Cambodia
Here is the video of AI Ko in action. In the video, the AI explains the “fake police” scam and then shows an actual fake police call that appears to have been done from one of the scam compound video rooms in Cambodia.
