TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a Nepalsese man and his father for posing as “Shohei Otani” online to defraud an elderly woman in Minato Ward, reports TV Asahi (June 24).
Suman Kumar Niure, 26, allegedly worked with his father, 44, to pose as the star for the Los Angeles Dodgers on social media in swindling the 80-year-old woman in Minato Ward out of 1 million yen last November.
Police said both suspects admit to allegations of fraud.
According to police, Niure found the woman on Facebook and sent false messages to her via chat app Line while posing as Ohtani over several months.
“I’m the best person in the world, so my insurance premiums are really high,” he wrote. “I’ve paid tens of millions of yen in insurance premiums, but it’s not enough. I want you to pay me 1 million yen in insurance premiums.”
If the victim called, he evaded her. “The game is about to start so I can’t answer the phone right now. I’m in a hurry,” he wrote.
When the suspect visited the victim’s home to collect the 1 million yen, he pretended to be “Shohei Otani’s agent.”
Most of the stolen money was later transferred to an account belonging to the suspect’s father.
The suspects live in Adachi Ward. TV Asahi interviewed the mother of Niure, who operates a curry shop. “It’s in the red because of COVID,” she says of the shop. “They don’t have any money anymore.”
Regarding the scam, she says, “I don’t know anything. I really don’t know anything.”
