TOKYO (TR) – Law enforcement in Tokyo and Hiroshima and Shimane prefectures earlier this month announced the arrest of 22 members of a fraud ring that is suspected of fleecing more than 1 billion yen from thousands of people nationwide since last year.
In September, the 22 suspects, including 47-year-old Moriyasu Kishimoto, falsely told a man in his 20s that he could earn a high income by paying a fee to participate in a side job in September.
The suspects then had him purchase and send a total of 975,000 yen worth of cryptocurrency assets to them, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Nov. 7).
None of the suspects, who have been accuse of fraud, have admitted to the charges, police said.
Kishimoto, who lives in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, and his accomplices used ads on chat app Line to promote “side jobs that will pay you money on the same day.” They added that persons could “earn a stable income of about 300,000 to 1 million yen per month” with “no quotas or risks.”
The 22 suspects were based in a multi-tenant building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, where they sent messages and made phone calls to victims.
According to police, Kishimoto and others created a fake side job website and told applicants that they needed to sign up for support plans to start a side job.
They then had them convert the money they borrowed from consumer finance companies into cryptocurrency. Those assets were then sent to the suspects.
Police believe that the ring defrauded about 3,000 people nationwide out of about 1.3 billion yen since January of last year.
The investigation is ongoing, with police believing there may have been other people who acted as supervisors in the ring.
