OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police this week announced that two women living in the prefecture have fallen victim to so-called “romance scam” frauds via social networking sites.
Both women lost a total of approximately 280 million yen, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 25).
According to the police, in September last year, a woman in her 70s posted a gardening photo on a social networking in September of last year.
She then received a message from a man claiming to be a 56-year-old doctor for a ship connected to the World Health Organization. “Your flowers are lovely,” the person wrote.
The man, who lives in Michigan, USA, said he was sailing in the North Sea and asked the woman to collect his retirement benefits and send them to his daughter. “I can’t receive my retirement benefits from my company on board the ship,” the person claimed. “I was attacked by pirates while sailing.”
The woman transferred a total of 109.8 million yen to a specified account in 103 transfers through November this year.
In the second case, another woman, a doctor in her 60s, met a man claiming to be Spanish and living in Tokyo through a language exchange app in May this year.
In exchanges, the person called the woman his “wife” and encouraged her to trade crypto assets. The woman subsequently transferred a total of approximately 170 million yen.
Police also announced that two men in their 60s from the prefecture were also defrauded of a total of approximately 68 million yen in tokushu sagi (or specialized fraud) schemes in which perpetrators posed as police officers or other persons in carrying out the cons.
