IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a 34-year-old Chinese man for allegedly defrauding a female company executive living in the southern part of the prefecture out of over 80 million yen in an investment scam conducted on social media.
The police are continuing to investigate the matter, which they say is the largest social media investment fraud case to date, with a total of over 800 million yen being defrauded from the victim, reports NHK (Nov. 12).
The suspect is Wen Zhuolin, a resident of Tokyo’s Sumida Ward who calls himself a company executive.
According to the police, the suspect allegedly conspired with other individuals to defraud a 71-year-old female company executive living in southern Ibaraki Prefecture over chat app Line over a roughly six-month period until mid-April this year.
In October last year, the fraudster posed as economic analyst Takuro Morinaga and other people on Instagram while making false investment offers such as “you can expect an 85 percent profit per month.”
On December 11 and 18 last year, the woman met a receiver at a railway station near her home and handed over a total of 83 million yen cash. The receiver had been given instructions from Wen, police said.
Police have not revealed whether Wen admits to the allegations, citing the possibility that this information could be an impediment to their investigation.
The transfers began in November of last year, one month after she found the fake Morinaga account. That month, she sent 10 million yen to the suspect after a person claiming to be an assistant of Morinaga persuaded her to invest.
The ring then convinced the woman online that her investment was paying off. In 47 subsequent transactions, including the two December, she transferred a total of 799 million yen.
According to police, the suspect was arrested by Fukushima Prefectural Police in May this year in connection with a different SNS-type investment fraud case. Records believed to be related to the case were found in data taken from a seized computer.
Meanwhile, police say 809 million yen lost in the case is largest amount in a social media-type investment fraud. Police are continuing to investigate the situation, viewing it as an organized crime.
