Octogenarian Dupes Scammer on $748,000 in Crypto

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Source: Smile/Adobe

A Japanese woman in her 80s was duped with over $748,000 worth of tokens by a crypto scammer who told her her bank account was under attack.

Kyodo News (via Tokyo Shimbum) reported that the woman was contacted by a “person claiming to be a department employee. [local government] desks.”

The outlet quoted Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Tamagawa station describing the victim as “an octogenarian woman from Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.”

Officers explained that in mid-November last year, the woman was at home when she received a phone call to her landline.

The caller claimed to be a local government official and told the woman:

“Your bank account is being used for a crime and your funds are about to be frozen.”

The woman asked the caller what she should do if she wanted to protect her funds. The caller, the officers continued, then told the woman:

“Let’s get your money out of the account before it’s too late.”

The police explained that the woman then followed the caller’s instructions. She used her smartphone to open a wallet on a crypto exchange.

She then used her bank details to buy around 97 million yen (around $748,000) worth of an unnamed token through the same exchange – and created a password for the wallet at the caller’s direction.

It appears that the caller made sure he knew this password. Shortly after the call, the crypto the woman had purchased had “disappeared” from the wallet.

Rise in Crypto Fraud Targeting Japanese Seniors

Police said the incident was “being investigated as a special fraud case”.

Crypto fraud is believed to be on the rise in Japan – with an increasing number of elderly victims being targeted.

In 2018, an 84-year-old woman from Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture handed over $9,000 to a voice-phishing scammer who claimed her brother had incurred crypto-related debts.

And in 2021, a number of convenience store employees were praised by police for intervening in crypto-related scams that targeted elderly victims.

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