get wind of
オレオレ詐欺にとって代わる新たな詐欺の件数が増えてきています。上京詐欺というもので、田舎に住む高齢者を狙って、東京などの都心にお金を持ってこさせる卑劣な手口のようです。
‘Jokyo’ scam is swindlers’ latest ruse as ‘ore-ore’ fraud hits new record
Assuming the imposter to be his son, the father took a shinkansen bound for Tokyo the same day. But his real son got wind of the attempted fraud and rushed to a police station in Shinagawa Ward at around 4 p.m. Later in the day, officers from the Saitama Prefectural Police, contacted by Tokyo police, met the train at JR Omiya Station, where they found the father, notifying him of the plot.
Although the father was carrying his wife’s cellphone, the son could not reach him as the swindler had told the father not to answer any calls, police said.
The police estimate that the amount of money defrauded will hit a record high this year, led by the ore-ore scam, which stood at \12.5 billion between January and September. About 80 percent of the victims are people in their 60s or older.
To prevent jokyo frauds, the police have asked Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) to display warnings on Tokaido Shinkansen Line trains from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3.
“wind”には、名詞でおなじみの「風」という意味がありますが、「気配、兆し、うわさ、秘密」という意味もありました（『Wisdom英和辞典』三省堂）。ここでは、get wind of で、「詐欺のにおいを感じて、詐欺ではないかと思い」というような意味で用いられています。
風の噂や、風の便りという言葉をよく耳にしますが、ここでの風も今回の意味から来ているのではないかと推測出来ます。
人の弱みに付け込むことは、とても許しがたいことです。（Starlight）
