Chinese man arrested after defrauding wife of record $809 million. yen

A Chinese citizen was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly defrauding a 71-year-old woman of 809 million yen ($5.3 million) in eastern Japan. This represents the largest reported loss in a social media-based investment scam in Japan, police said on Tuesday.

According to police who arrested 34-year-old Wen Zhuolin on suspicion of fraud, the woman, a company executive from Ibaraki Prefecture, was scammed through a fake Line messaging app account posing as Japanese business analyst Takuro Morinaga. lured into an investment program.

Police believe Wen, a self-professed business executive living in Tokyo's Sumida district, coordinated the cash couriers.

According to police, the woman first came across the investment ad on Instagram in October 2023 and added an account purporting to be Morinaga.

She transferred 10 million yen in November after a person claiming to be Morinaga's assistant persuaded her to invest. After the scammers used an app to appear to be making profits, the woman transferred or handed over a total of 799 million yen in 47 transactions.

Wen is suspected of conspiring with unknown accomplices between October 24, 2023 and April 12, 2024 to deceive the woman with false promises of investments and instruct cash couriers to collect a total of 83 million yen from her at a train station in the southern prefecture Ibaraki on December 11th and 18th, 2023.

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