Five men suspected of swindling dozens of people out of 55 million yen by pretending to refund their taxes were arrested Thursday, police said.

Takeru Sakamoto, 26, an unemployed man from Tokyo's Adachi-ku, and four others stand accused of computer fraud. All the suspects have denied the allegations, according to investigators.

In the specific case for which the suspects were arrested, Sakamoto and his accomplices called a 65-year-old woman from Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in February and falsely told her, "We will give you a refund because you paid too much tax."

The woman then transferred about 330,000 yen to an account operated by the ring through a credit union ATM, police said.

Investigators suspect that the five swindled about 50 people out of approximately 55 million yen between July last year and March this year.

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.