October 26, 2026 / 6:22 AM EDT / AFP

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A 93-year-old woman in western Japan outsmarted a suspected scammer by pretending to fall for the scheme and helping police arrest him at her home, a police official told AFP on Monday.

Japan has the second-oldest population in the world after Monaco, and senior citizens are often targeted by fraudsters, who last year collectively stole around 325.7 billion yen ($2.0 billion) from their victims.

The woman, who lives in the Shiga region, received telephone calls from Wednesday through Thursday last week from a man who claimed to be a police officer.

The caller falsely informed her that her bank account had experienced an unauthorized withdrawal.

The woman was told to give her ATM card to a man, posing as a police officer, who would visit her so authorities could verify her account.

Suspecting a scam, the woman consulted her son and the police as she waited for the man to visit her house.

"The person's family reached out to the police on…