HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police on Saturday announced a man had been swindled in a cryptocurrency fraud after being lured by a person he believed to be a woman that he met via a matchmaking app, reports NHK (Sep. 14).
According to the Sumoto Police Station, the man, a local government employee aged 58, was defrauded out of approximately 120 million yen in crypto assets.
In June, the man was approached by the person he believed to be a woman through the app Line. The person then discussed investing, saying that crypto assets were profitable.
On more than a dozen occasions between July and September 12, he followed the person’s instructions and transferred money a total of 120.46 million yen to an account specified by her under the impression he was purchasing bitcoin.
When the man said he wanted to withdraw money, he was told that a fee of 25 million yen would be charged. This made the man suspicious, so he consulted the police. Police are treating the case as fraud.
