Today's communities in Japan, especially impersonal big cities, are becoming hostile places in many ways for elderly people living alone. New gangs of criminals, who often pose as kind and soft-spoken business operators, are eager to swindle the elderly out of their life savings. These con artists know all too well that elderly people who live in isolation and suffer from a weakening sense of judgment are easy targets.

An increasing number of malicious incidents involving fraudulent telephone or door-to-door sales are being reported in a wide range of fields -- including termite eradication, health food sales, commodity-futures trading, foreign-exchange deposit transactions and home renovation.

In one typical case that occurred in the suburbs of Tokyo, a self-styled home renovator visited two elderly sisters, aged 80 and 78, and convinced them that their home was in dire need of renovation. He repeatedly carried out needless renovation work amounting to more than 50 million, yen and coerced the sisters into handing over their savings of 40 million yen. Later it was learned that the sisters suffered from senile dementia, making them particularly vulnerable.