OSAKA — Nearly half of imposter scam victims in Osaka Prefecture last year were under 65. That number is driving a new approach from local police: a virtual chief named AIko. AIko debuted in late May on the Osaka Prefectural Police YouTube channel.
She is a digital officer, a young woman in appearance and voice. Her name is a mashup of “AI” and “ko,” a common suffix for Japanese female names.
She does not exist outside a screen. But the fraud she targets is very real. And it is spreading beyond the elderly.
Preliminary police figures for 2025 show people aged 64 or younger accounted for nearly half of all imposter scam victims in the prefecture. That is a sharp shift.
For years, these scams — callers posing as police, investment celebrities, or romantic partners — were seen as crimes against the old. No longer. Victims in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s are now common targets, according to police data.
The scammers adapt. They use online exchanges, fake arrest warrants, and impersonation tactics that work on anyone who picks up a phone or clicks a link. AIko’s video, titled “Chief AIko’s crime prevention class,” shows exactly how these scams work.
It includes actual examples of scam tactics and real exchanges between scammers and victims. No abstract warnings.
No generic advice. Concrete screenshots of the fraud in action. “No police officers show their IDs and arrest warrants online,” AIko states in the clip.
That line is the core of the message: the scammers rely on people not knowing what real police procedure looks like. AIko is there to show the difference.
The choice of platform matters. YouTube is not where traditional public service announcements live. It is where younger demographics spend their time.
Police are betting that a virtual chief, delivered through a familiar digital channel, will reach people who tune out posters at the train station or pamphlets at the city hall. Osaka Prefecture has seen a surge in imposter scams across a wide age range. The police data is preliminary, but the trend is clear.
The fraud is not stopping at the elderly. Scammers are targeting anyone with money and a phone.
AIko is a response to that reality. She is a digital outreach tool, not a replacement for human officers. She does not make arrests.
She does not take reports. She speaks.
She warns. She shows. The video format is designed to be concrete.
Seeing the scam play out, seeing the actual words scammers use, seeing the fake IDs they send — that is harder to dismiss than a generic warning. Police hope that concreteness will raise awareness, especially among younger generations who may think they are too savvy to fall for such tricks. There is no word yet on whether AIko will appear in more videos or expand her role.
For now, she is a single clip on a YouTube channel. But that clip represents a recognition that crime prevention has to meet people where they are.
And where they are is online. The scammers already know that. Now the police are catching up.
