Man in Japan's Mie Pref. reveals tactics of romance scammer after losing $69,000

The Mainichi

6 hours ago

TSU -- "I was stupid. I never thought I would be fooled." So reflected a man in his 50s from the Mie Prefecture city of Suzuka who recently lost some 10 million yen (about $69,000) to a romance scam through social media. Hoping to prevent others from falling victim to similar fraud schemes, the man shared his bitter experience with the press. His exchanges provide a glimpse into the sophisticated tactics used by the criminals to exploit the vulnerabilities in his heart to steal his money.
It was around April last year that the man received a message on X (formerly Twitter) from a person going by the name "Yuga," who claimed to be a woman from Taiwan. "It's nice to meet you," the message read, accompanied by an emoji. The man initially thought she was a tourist from Taiwan whom a friend had asked him to guide, so he began corresponding with the person.
"Let's meet in Japan," the person suggested.
It turned out that "Yuga" was not the tourist he was supposed to guide, but merely happened to be from Taiwan. Nevertheless, the man was drawn to her. "As we discussed Taiwan and other topics, I felt I wanted to get to know her as a friend. I believed she cared for me differently from others. Honestly, I was happy," he recalled.
About a week after they met, "Yuga" introduced the idea of investing. "There's a place that handles cryptocurrencies," she told him. Although the man had experience with stock investments and was initially suspicious of fraud, he found nothing amiss upon conducting his own research. He followed instructions to send a total of approximately 2 million yen ($13,800) over six transactions to a specified site as an investment.
Later, when he checked the site, the value of his cryptocurrency was displayed as 40 million yen -- about 20 times his initial investment and above his target amount -- prompting him to attempt to withdraw it as cash.
When he did so, he received an unexpected demand from the site: "You need to pay taxes to cash out." The man, however, trusted the site. "I thought it was strange, but it was within my means to pay," he recalled. Over seven transactions, he transferred an additional 8 million yen ($55,300) as instructed.
Nevertheless, he remained unable to withdraw the funds, and he became unable to contact "Yuga." Realizing he had been scammed, the man consulted with prefectural police in October last year, but the approximately 10 million yen he had transferred in total was never recovered.
"I knew about the scam tactics, but I didn't realize I was being deceived at the time. I wasn't thorough enough," the man reflected. Although he hadn't entirely refrained from consulting with others, he admitted, "When profits were rising, I got carried away and didn't talk to anyone about it." "Even when I was told to 'stop," among other advice, I chose to transfer the money to process it," he said, expressing his regret.
"Blindly trusting introductions or information from unrelated individuals is a recipe for disaster," he said. "There's no such thing as an easy deal."
60% of victims aware of scam tactics
There seems to be no end to social media-based investment and romance scams in Mie Prefecture. According to prefectural police, there were 302 such cases in 2024 with damages totaling about 2.71 billion yen (some $18.7 million) -- more than double the 119 cases and approximately 1.16 billion yen ($8 million) lost in 2023, marking a record high.
To understand the situation better, prefectural police conducted a survey of victims from October 2024 to the end of March 2025. Of the 42 respondents aged from their 20s to 80s, 27 people, or 64%, stated they "knew the scam tactics," with 24 of them having learned about these tactics through media reports.
When asked why they had been deceived, with multiple answers permitted, the top answer selected by 32 respondents, or 76%, was that tactics were "cunning." Twenty-three people said, "I never thought I would be a victim," while 17 said, I had originally been interested in investing." As for whether they had consulted anyone, 38 people said they hadn't, indicating that most were deceived without seeking advice.
The prefectural police community safety planning division has called for people to come forward with information, saying, "Please suspect fraud when people you don't know well or have a weak relationship with bring up investment stories or requests for money. Even if you're at the stage of having doubts, consult the police or other authorities."
(Japanese original by Masaya Shibuya, Tsu Bureau)