Consumer issues recently attracting attention
Part 1 : Trends in consumer issues and consumers' attitude/behavior
Chapter 1 : Collection of information on consumer accidents and result of analysis
Section 4 : Consumer issues recently attracting attention
There was a rapid increase in consultations related to billing fraud postcards whereby the Ministry of Justice was personated.
- Consultations related to billing fraud in 2017 were 159,000, a significant increase from the previous year.
- Consultations related to billing fraud postcards were 56,000.
- With regard to specific content of the postcards, by personating the Ministry of Justice, etc. they insinuate that assets will be seized by force, etc.
- Most of contractors are middle-aged and elderly women in their 50s or over.
- Most of the consultations related to billing fraud (98.1%) are before consenting to bills.
Consultations regarding SNS increased also in people aged 50 years & over.
- Consultations that have any connection to SNS increased to 14,000 in 2017.
- By age group, the number of consultations from people in their 20s is the highest.
- For the age group below the 20s, there are consultations where consumers are invited by a friend whom the consumers got to know through SNS and are involved in multilevel marketing transactions, etc.
- Meanwhile, compared to 2013, the number of consultations from the 50s, 60s, and 70 years & over age groups is more than 4 times higher, respectively.
- The details of the consultation have a wide range.
Examples of consultation: "I saw an ad on a social media and bought the product as a trial, but it turned out to be repeated subscription".
Troubles related to virtual currency increased.
- The number of consultations related to virtual currency in 2017 was 3.5 times than in 2016.
- A typical case is fraud in which investment and moneymaking associated with converting virtual currency is declared.
Examples of consultation: "I bought virtual currency to make a profit from selling it, but it was not bought from me as I had been told it would be during solicitation, and I didn't get back the money I paid," etc. - There are also troubles related to security.
Examples of consultation: "I can't check my purchasing, selling, and remittance, etc."
"My account was illegally accessed, and my money has been sent to a third party," etc.
A rapid increase in consultations related to purchases and sales between individuals through the Internet.
- As more people used services where individuals make transactions with each other on products and services on the Internet, consultations related to purchases and sales between individuals increased rapidly after 2014.
- There are consultations from both consumers of buyers side and consumers of sellers side.
Examples of consultation; Buyer side: "Products were fakes," "Items did not arrive," etc.
Seller side: "Buyers refused receiving items," "Purchase prices were not paid"
Fraudulent schemes that take advantage of "Shukatsu" of elderly people are significant.
① Door-to-door purchase
- Consultations related to so-called door-to-door purchases in which consumers have buyers purchase products from their homes are in the 8000's annually after 2015.
- In 2017, elderly people aged 65 years & over accounted for about 60%, and about 80% of which is women.
Examples of consultation: "I wanted to sell some things I didn't need so I called a buyer to my house, but they forcefully demanded that I show them my jewelry and I ended up selling them."
"I wanted to get back my jewelry that I sold to the buyers that came to my house. So I called them but they said 'Purchased items are not subject to cooling-off.' 'I resold the product.' " etc.
2 Secondary damage to the people encountered real estate frauds for selling waste land
- The number of consultations related to secondary damage where former victims of real estate frauds for selling waste land are solicited by using fraudulent explanations to make new expensive contracts, increased significantly in 2017.
- Total payment made, 2円.67 billion, and payment made per consultation, 1円.62 million, were both expensive in 2017.
Examples of consultation : Consultations were asked for such as "I made a contract after a sales person told me that they would buy the land at a high price and I paid several million yen in 'sales commissions'.", but the actual contract is for selling waste land, etc. and for purchasing new waste land, etc. that is more expensive than the selling price of the original waste land, so consumers have to pay the difference as a result, etc. - There are cases where solicitation was received as an additional "secondary damage".
Examples of consultation : "I was solicited by a company that said "We save people who suffer from what you are suffering. If you contract us, we will get back your money.", etc.
