Man arrested for scamming Japanese woman out of $5.2 million in historic case

A Chinese national was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly impersonating a celebrity to scam a Japanese woman out of 809 million yen ($5.2 million), marking the largest online investment scam against a single individual in Japan.

Wen Zhuolin, 34, allegedly posed as well-known Japanese economist Takuro Morinaga using a fake account on messaging app Line to carry out the scam. The victim, a 71-year-old executive from Ibaraki Prefecture, reportedly contacted the scammer after seeing an investment ad on Instagram in October 2023. Wen then enticed the victim with an 85% monthly return on gold investments.

The victim initially transferred 10 million yen ($65,000) in November 2023, followed by two cash handovers to the suspect and his purported accomplices at a train station the following month. After being shown fake profit growth, the victim proceeded to transfer a total of 799 million yen ($5.1 million) across 47 transactions. The alleged scheme took place between Oct. 24, 2023, and April 12, 2024.