Crypto scammers preying on Japanese users of social media and chat apps

Crypto-related crime continues to rise in Japan – where a media outlet has told how two men in their thirties were stung by chat app-based crypto scammers running a fake crypto exchange.

According to the Yomiuri newspaper, 24 cases of crypto-related scams in which the perpetrators used social media and chat apps have been reported in Fukuoka Prefecture so far in 2022. The cumulative amount of money lost in social media-driven scams in the region has reached $2 million – the border, explained the police.

The outlet interviewed two men who said they were defrauded by “investors” on an investment-themed Telegram channel earlier this year. The first man, called “A” by the media to preserve his anonymity, explained that a person from the chat asked for his line ID to continue a conversation privately.

He was later approached on Line by a woman calling herself “Angie Lee” and claiming to be from Taiwan.

In “broken Japanese,” she attempted to persuade him to “invest in crypto assets” using a platform she recommended.

A was skeptical at first, but eventually agreed to invest a “small amount” – around $34 – on the platform. When he made windfall “profits” of “several tens of thousands of yen” from this initial investment, A explained that “his suspicions gradually disappeared.”

A continued to increase the size of his bet, eventually depositing nearly $9,000 into the platform on 10 separate instances. He added that he successfully withdrew fiat from the platform on two occasions.

A then introduced his friend (B), also from Fukuoka Prefecture, to Angie Lee. The latter then proceeded to invest around $36,500 on the platform over the course of eight transactions.

But in August, A came across a post on the internet which claimed that the “platform” was actually a scam exchange. He contacted B to suggest they try to withdraw their money “little by little – to avoid suspicion”.

But when they tried to remove their funds, the platform instructed them that their transactions were “under review.”

A then attempted to register an inquiry with the platform’s “customer service center”, and was told that he would have to pay a “cancellation fee” of over $4,000 if he wanted to withdraw any of his money.

He took the matter up with the prefectural police, but was unable to recover any of his funds.

Social Media Scammers: A ‘Known Pattern’ for Crypto Scammers

The Fukuoka Prefectural Police’s investigation department noted that the case followed a similar pattern, where overseas-based individuals attempt to gain people’s trust on social media and dating apps – and try to trick them into sending their coins to crypto wallets that are actually run by fake crypto exchanges. operators.

Most do this by posing as attractive foreign men or women and then letting them “earn money to gain trust”, before “swindling them for a large amount of money”.

A was quoted as saying:

“I let my guard down when I saw that I was making a profit. […] I didn’t know much about crypto. I didn’t even realize that my friend and I were being tricked.”

Last year, convenience store workers stepped in to prevent cases of crypto fraud, while in 2018, a crypto scammer conned an 84-year-old woman out of $9,000.