Sitting on that odd, fading and often slightly guilt-inducing list of things that were better during the pandemic was the sharp Covid-driven retreat of Japan’s defrauding of the elderly. But now the alarmingly swift resurrection of what is known as the ore ore scam is goading the country towards an ageist, philosophically complicated and not terribly practical solution. If it isn’t careful, the world’s oldest population could decide to declare its elderly incompetent. 

Ore ore fraud has always been an emotional subject. Con artists pillage Japan’s senior citizens by posing on the phone as a young relative in trouble with an urgent need (car accident, medical bill, etc) for an immediate cash transfer at an ATM. 

The scam’s success, and the reason it evokes the spectre of deep societal failure, is not just the cruel victimisation of the vulnerable. The hand-wringing arises from a recognition that, after years of family atomisation, urban migration and physical estrangement, many elderly Japanese do not recognise their grandchildren’s voices well enough to question a call that begins “Hi Granny, it’s me!”