Tokyo, 15 June, /AJMEDIA/
Consumers in Japan made a record 80,404 reports in 2023 about shopping and financial scams on social media, up by nearly 20,000 cases from the previous year, the government said Friday.
There was a significant increase in complaints to government consumer affairs centers from people in their 50s or older, while the number of reports over issues with subscription-based services also surged by over 20,000 from 2022 to a record 98,101, it said.
Examples of complaints involve people being unable to withdraw money after they were lured to invest in foreign exchange margin trading, while others complained they purchased a luxury brand bag off a fake website.
Complaints were made by a wide range of age groups, according to an annual white paper on consumer affairs approved by the cabinet.
Regarding complaints from people who unintentionally signed up for subscription-based purchases, many said they could not cancel their contracts, with cosmetics and health food products among the most reported.
The overall number of consumer complaints increased some 33,000 to around 900,000, led by reports over general issues including spam emails and suspicious phone calls, followed by real estate lending and construction issues.
Based on the number of complaints, the government estimates there were around 20.67 million cases, likely totaling a record high of around 8.8 trillion yen in damage to consumers.
© KYODO
