Fake Police May be Casing Foreigners, Stealing Identities

If you are a foreigner in Japan, you may want to take a good look at the officer the next time you are asked to show your ID, especially if at your own home.
I just caught this story at a online blog community called Expats Japan. You can see it here. In the article, the poster tells of a suspicious cop who came to her home and asked for personal information. She later called the local police and sure enough, they knew of no such information collecting activities being performed by their own officers. They offered the following advice:

1) the police department usually sends officers out in pairs, not alone, to someone’s door
2) if the police want to collect personal info, they will tell you explicitly what it’s for (and this would be a very rare case). if language is an issue, they would encourage you to call a japanese speaking friend or would just leave and return later with an (insert your language here) speaker
3) police officers will always show clear IDs, and you can copy down their ID numbers for your records
4) police officers who come to your door will always be wearing large badges, also with ID numbers
5) and of course the usual….always keep your door locked, hide your valuables, don’t answer the door to anyone you don’t know, blah, blah, blah.

I wonder how prevalent this type of casing/Identity theft scam is. Maybe we could give it a name, like the Ore Ore scam　(オレオレ詐欺）. Shomei Shomei scam (証明証明詐欺)? See, it rhymes　with ore, but if you have a more amusing one leave a comment.
Be safe kids, officers have to show you their ID if they are asking for yours, and keep in mind what your rights are in such situations.