FUKUOKA (TR) – A female teacher from Fukuoka City was tricked out of 42 million yen in cash by a person conducting an online romance online, which police say is a serious problem in the prefecture, reports NHK (Oct 31).
According to police, the teacher, aged in her 50s, received a message from an account under the name of a man whom she met on social media in September. The person then suggested they get married.
As the conversation continued, the person encouraged her to invest, saying things like “Why don’t you study asset management for your future?” She then registered on an investment site.
After that, she was instructed by another person claiming to be an employee of the investment site’s operating company to transfer on 11 occasions a total of 42 million yen in cash to a specified account.
Police are investigating the case as a “social media romance scam,” which typically involves the exploitation of the romantic feelings of a person in order to trick them out of large sums of money.
As of September this year, the amount lost to social media scams in Fukuoka Prefecture alone has reached over 5.6 billion yen, making the situation extremely serious.
Police are urging people not to transfer money to persons they do not know.
