Nagoya University and Fujitsu today announced that they will begin the world’s first field trials of technology for detecting phone scams at households. These trials, commencing in August in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, will be in collaboration with the Okayama Prefectural Police, the Okayama Pref. Information Communications unit of the National Police Agency’s Chugoku Regional Police Bureau, and The Chugoku Bank. During the trials, when the technology detects a call suspected of being a phone scam targeting a monitored household, it will first warn the participant with a synthesized voice message.

Next, the system will send an e-mail alarm to the person’s family members, as well as the police, banks and other relevant institutions. After receiving an alert, each party can take steps to prevent the fraud from occurring. For example, police can visit the participant’s household, while banks can temporarily freeze the person’s bank account and be on alert.The new field trials will help to improve the accuracy of phone scam detection technology, in addition to testing the ability of groups such as families, police and banks to prevent fraud. Going forward, Nagoya University and Fujitsu will explore how to prevent phone fraud before it actually occurs.