Chinese authorities have detained 35 Japanese nationals in the southeastern province of Fujian for alleged fraud, the Japanese foreign ministry said today, in what was probably one of the worst cases of telephone scams targeting the elderly.

The group is the largest Japanese telephone fraud group discovered to be operating in China so far, in terms of the numbers detained, the Nikkei said.

Phone-based fraud targeting senior citizens is widespread in Japan, with an impostor, usually posing as a child or grandchild desperately in need of cash, asking an elderly person to make a bank transfer or hand money to a friend or colleague.

Read more at Reuters