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This question is related to my previous question asking for English equivalent to Japanese “It’s me” scam. The Asahi, a leading Japanese daily newspaper reported that the Consumer Agency is dispatching their staff to the U.S. FTC to study the latest trends of and countermeasures to consumer-related crimes such as the grandparent scam, in its May 9 issue under the headline, “The origin of grandparent scams – “I’m Mike” in U.S.”

It says,

“The fraudulent crimes to swindle a large amount of money from the elderly by disguising as their son are prevailing as well in U.S., where the technique is called “I’m Mike (scam)." According to the Consumer Agency, Japanese swindler groups have imitated (or imported) the “I’m Mike” technique in U.S.

I’m curious to know if “I’m Mike” is a popular word as a metonym of grandparent scam in U.S. as the Asahi wrote. Have you ever heard of? If not, I'm going to write to the Asahi.

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I have never heard of it and I love reading about swindles and scams.

When I put it in google all the way to "i'm mike sca" the word scam doesn't even fill.

When I type the full phrase into google nothing describing the phrase as a scam comes up. It may be something that was translated incorrectly or translated to make easier to reference.

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    english.stackexchange.com/questions/169403/… They do not use a name but just "grandma" or grandpa" and then wait for the elderly person to use their grandchild's name
    – Third News
    Commented May 12, 2014 at 3:40
  • I don’t either believe the cons use personal names such as Mike, Tom, and Jon. It’s silly for swindlers to use such a specific name, because the phone will be cut off on the instant it’s found a wrong name by the grandparent. So Japanese swindlers say "It's me, mom." I was very skeptical about the Asahi’s statement.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented May 12, 2014 at 4:23

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