The Tokyo Police Department arrested a Nigerian national, 61, unknown occupation, in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on suspicion of fraud and theft, for posing as a woman and swindling cash from a man he met on social media. The Police believe that the man leads a group based overseas that commits “‘international romance scams”, in which members make victims fall in love to swindle money.
According to the police, the suspect conspired with another men who had already been arrested and charged, to meet the man on Facebook between March and December 2021, pretending to be a woman, and send him messages on a message app saying, “I’ll give you the rest of the inheritance from my husband”. The suspects are alleged to have defrauded the man into transferring a total of approximately 6 million yen by explaining that she would need to pay the cost of opening an overseas bank account and a fee for converting the money into Japanese yen.
The alleged conspirators were a man who is a member of the yakuza and two Yamaguchigumi members. They were arrested and charged with the same offense. The Nigerian man was an acquaintance of one of the men, a member of the 6th Yamaguchigumi.
The police believe that the group defrauded more than 20 people for a total of approximately 370 million yen.
