Rise of Spot Work Schemes Leading to Scams in Japan

Jiji Press

11:52 JST, October 7, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—The growing popularity in Japan of “spot work” staffing arrangements, which enable people to work short hours such as during their free time and be paid the same day, has led to an increase in schemes defrauding operators of related platforms.

Industry members are worried that the type of scam, in which operators of platform apps pay wages to spot workers initially on behalf of their employers but cannot collect the money later from the businesses, may spread.

According to the Japan Spot Work Association, an organization of platform operators, the total number of people registered with its four main member firms and Mercari Hallo, a new service launched by flea market app operator Mercari Inc. in March, stood at around 25 million people as of last month.

The platform operators pay salaries to workers on the day of work on behalf of businesses, and collect the amount plus commission from the employers at the end of each month.

In the scam, people pretending to be employers post fake job openings, and conspirators apply for the jobs and submit false work records to platform operators to receive salary payments. Several such cases have been found since late last year.

Police in the western Japan prefecture of Osaka arrested four people early last month for allegedly defrauding a platform operator of about ¥680,000 .. The four colluded to pretend to be employers and workers on the platform, and the total amount of damage is believed to be at least ¥4.3 million , according to investigators.

A Japan Spot Work Association official said that platform operators are “doing everything that can be done” to avoid falling victim to fraud, such as requiring employers and workers using their services to verify their identities through My Number personal identification cards and driving licenses.

However, it takes some time to detect fraud, and it cannot be determined quickly whether employers failing to pay their month-end charges are not paying out of malice or are slow to pay due to poor business.

Operators are also conducting credit checks on businesses, but such efforts are not effective for individual business owners.

“Each operator is strengthening patrols to see if there are any employers posting suspicious job openings,” the association official said, adding that there are plans to boost information-sharing among operators.

An official of major industry player Timee Inc. said that its top priority is to ensure the safety and security of users, indicating that the company plans to take measures against scams in accordance with the policies of the government and police.