YAMAGATA (TR) – A person dwelling within the prefecture fell sufferer to a social media romance rip-off and was defrauded of roughly 130 million yen in cryptocurrency and money, police mentioned.
According to police, in August of this yr, the sufferer began chatting with an individual claiming to be a girl on Instagram. As they continued to speak on chat app Line, he started to develop emotions for her.
The individual, who claimed to be half-Japanese and half-Taiwanese, then approached him about cryptocurrencies. She mentioned, “70 percent of people make money by finding a side job and are good at managing their assets.”
The individual additionally posted photographs of a girl in swimwear lounging by a pool. She went on, “Your virtual currency savings will earn 0.8 percent interest every day.”
After opening a cryptocurrency account, the person transferred roughly 130 million yen on over 20 events to specified accounts. He additionally transferred money to an account underneath the pretext of taxes, switch charges and different costs.
Highest quantity ever
Police take into account the case to be a tokushu sagi, which means specialised fraud. Perpetrators of this crime goal a sufferer over the phone and impersonate an authority determine or relative to defraud cash from them.
The lack of roughly 130 million yen is the best quantity ever recorded within the prefecture for a specialised fraud case and a social media romance rip-off.
Due to the big sum of money concerned, a monetary establishment supplied info on the case to the police. Investigators then interviewed the sufferer and found the extent of his losses.
Romance scams
The perpetrator communicated with the sufferer virtually each day for 3 months, from mid-August to mid-November. During the communication, she despatched hyperlinks to rip-off web sites.
As of the tip of final month, the full quantity of losses from social media romance scams confirmed within the prefecture this yr totaled roughly 490 million yen.
Police are urging folks to suspect fraud if somebody they’ve by no means met asks them for cash.