Japanese police arrested 31-year-old Saki Okayama and 38-year-old Mitsuki Minamisawa over their alleged involvement in a police-impersonation scam targeting a woman in her 40s. The group allegedly posed as Osaka Prefectural Police, claimed her bank card was linked to a ¥600 billion money-laundering case involving about 400 accounts, and pressured her to transfer cryptocurrency worth approximately ¥81 million, or about $515,000. Police suspect the operation was directed by a Chinese national from a Cambodia-based fraud center. Confirmed losses in cases linked to the two suspects total about ¥240 million. The arrests come as fake-police scams drive rising losses in Japan: the National Police Agency recorded ¥61.71 billion in losses across 5,422 such cases through July 2026, with losses up 25.7% from a year earlier despite a 6.4% decline in case numbers. Authorities are also urging crypto exchanges to strengthen withdrawal delays, wallet-address checks, transaction monitoring and authentication controls.