Elderly Man Loses 324 Million Yen
Shimane Prefectural Police reported on April 2 that a man in his 70s from eastern Shimane Prefecture was defrauded of approximately 324.48 million yen in cash, 21 gold bars and 16 gold coins after engaging with a purported woman on LINE who promoted an AI-based investment system. The scam unfolded between December and late February, and the victim reported it on March 2, prompting an active police investigation.
Scoring Rationale
This is a credible police-backed report of a large, targeted romance-investment scam; novelty and scope are limited to a regional criminal case. I applied a -1.0 freshness penalty because the article was published April 2, 2026, reducing the final score.
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Sources
- Read OriginalShimane man bilked out of ¥300 million in gold bars, cash in ‘romance scam’tokyoreporter.com
