TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 40-year-old man over the alleged swindling of nearly 5 million yen from a woman during a trip to Thailand last year, reports TBS News (Jan. 16).
According to police, Shigeki Chiba defrauded the woman, aged in her 30s, by telling a false story involving marijuana planted in her bag.
In August, Chiba allegedly placed what appeared to be marijuana in her bag at their hotel in Thailand and demanded hush money to avoid both of them being arrested, thereby swindling her out of 4.98 million yen.
When questioned, Chiba, who lives in Hachioji City, denied the allegations. “The facts are not true,” he said. He was handed over to the prosecutors on Friday.
“Perfect boyfriend”
Chiba met the woman on a matchmaking app. The suspect’s profile stated, “I’ve traveled to about 20 countries overseas!”
The woman tells Nippon News Network (Jan. 17), “If he wasn’t a scammer, he’d be the perfect boyfriend.”
Prior to their departure, he reportedly told her, “I’ll take you to Thailand during summer vacation, so just prepare your passport.”
Photos published by the network show the couple doing sightseeing, including with Chiba posing with a tiger. However, things changed on the last day.
She says it went like this: “While we at the hotel, the phone rang. I speak conversational English, so I had him translate for me. It was a suspicious call with the caller saying, ‘You have marijuana in your bag, please check.'”
When the woman checked her bag, she found what appeared to be marijuana inside, which she had no recollection of.
She says, “I was so surprised I asked, ‘When did this happen?’ The fact remained that I had marijuana and I suddenly became a criminal.”
“Marijuana possession”
Police believe that Chiba put the marijuana in her bag.
He then lied to her, “I need 10 million yen to avoid arrest for marijuana possession.” He then asked her to pay half of that, approximately 5 million yen.
She goes on, “He said, ‘I’m also responsible, so I’ll pay half.’ For a moment, I thought, ‘Couldn’t he have put the marijuana in there?’ But then he said, ‘I’ll figure it out, so transfer it to my account.'”
After that, Chiba’s attitude changed completely, with him gradually becoming unreachable. The woman, feeling distrustful, contacted Tokyo police.
“I had mixed emotions; I trusted him so much that I thought, ‘There’s no one I could trust more than this.’ Now he’s betrayed me. I feel frustrated. I’m not getting my money back, so I want it back,” she says.
Tokyo police have confirmed other cases of women being defrauded of cash through a similar method. They are investigating whether these cases are connected to Chiba.
