2: Violations of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions that regulate door-to-door selling, etc. (hereinafter referred to as the "Specified Commercial Transactions")

Table 1 Status of Clearances of Offenses Involving Specified Commercial Transactions (1999-2008)

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Category	Number of offenses cleared (cases)	91	97	116	107	65	75	124	138	112
Number of suspects arrested (persons)	290	300	282	279	204	229	330	385	299	279
Number of legal persons arrested (persons)	10	14	8	24	11	11	27	32	34	28
Number of victims (persons)	174,306	63,190	26,532	55,689	41,784	27,719	64,420	70,679	75,495	33,833
Amount of damage	¥15,068.06 million	¥104,971.16 million	¥5,137.23 million	¥17,084.51 million	¥7,908.29 million	¥9,206.90 million	¥35,067.85 million	¥30,760.91 million	¥19,612.00 million	¥10,718.70 million

Note 1: The number of victims includes the number of people who concluded contracts that violate the Specified Commercial Transactions Act and the number of victims of frauds related to violations of the Act.

2: The amount of damage include amounts of contracts that violate the Specified Commercial Transactions Act and amounts of damage from frauds related to violations of the Act.

## 2 ) Main tactics of offenses involving specified commercial transactions

Main tactics of offenses involving specified commercial transactions prosecuted in recent years are described below. Recently, some vicious cases have been reported where people representing malicious businesses posing as officials from consumer protection-related institutions visit homes of victims and fetch off contract documents.

### a. “Inspection business” and selling-in-sequence practices

“Inspection business” involves practices where people are tricked into unnecessary home renovation at high costs after free-of-charge inspections of roofs, foundations, plumbing and other parts of houses and ensuing disquieting warning that “your houses could crumble if nothing is done,” or into buying expensive water purifiers or futon Japanese-style bedding after inspections of tap water or futon and ensuing warnings that “tap water contains rust” or “mites were found in your bedding.” The main targets are elderly people.

In very vicious cases, fraud perpetrators intentionally destroyed drainpipes and had homeowners to conclude contracts for repair works and defrauded homeowners of payments for ostensibly completed works when no works were actually done.

Victims who conducted one of these fraudulent transactions may be pressured to accept other home renovation works or purchase other goods one after another, or in other words, suffer from so-called selling-in-sequence practices, as information on them is shared by malicious business operators.

### b. Hypnotic sales $ ^{1} $

This is the tactics adopted to sell expensive health appliances, health foods, futon bedding and other products by luring victims into commercial premises for lease by visiting their homes, handing out flyers and talking to them on streets with catch-phrases emphasizing sales of sundry articles for everyday use at very cheap prices and lifting the mood of the audience with subjects about health. Elderly people are main targets. As malicious operators change bases of operations in a short period of time, there are some cases where cooling-off $ ^{2} $ options cannot be exercised.

In some vicious cases, fraud perpetrators threatened people into buying products after they initially refused to purchase them or accompanied contract applicants to financial institutions to press them to withdraw money from their deposit accounts to receive payments immediately.

Note 1: Taking the initials from the Shinseihin Fukyukai (the society for the spread of new products), the tactics are also called “SF sales.”

2: Unconditional cancellation of contracts

### c. “Reikan” sales

“Reikan” sales are the tactics where fraud perpetrators sell expensive products purported to bring supernatural benefits to buyers to escape from disaster after luring victims to sales offices after advertising low-cost appraisal of house physiognomy and names by visiting their homes or handing out flyers and giving them disquieting post-appraisal warnings that “a family member could have a premature death unless you make the personal seal” or “a family member could suffer adversity unless he/she carries a charm against bad luck.” In particularly vicious cases, fraud perpetrators kept those who refused to purchase their products within sales offices for long hours and doggedly pressed them to buy or sold expensive products to the same victims several times.