By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
Japanese law enforcement agents have apprehended four men in connection with the Aichi Prefecture crypto criminal scandal during which more than 20,000 Japanese ‘investors’ lost their money.
‘Investors’ Were Promised Out-Of-The-World Returns
These investors were promised staggering returns on their ‘investment’ as the scheme claimed to trade the cryptocurrency market using a fail-safe artificial intelligence trading bot. The project earned the fraudsters approximately $56 million (6.3 billion yen). A local newspaper (Asahi Shimbun) reports that the four suspected criminals were arrested two days ago. Their names have been revealed as Masamichi Toshima, Takuya Hashiyada, Yukihiro Yamashita, and Shoji Ishida.
The scheme tagged “Oz project” assured investors of receiving back all their investments and at least 2.5X their original investments in less than four months.
The scheme had a team that holds seminars for potential investors and even had a LINE investor group, where potential investors and potential investors engaged. (LINE is a widely popular messaging app in Japan).
This technique is presumed to have encouraged several persons to bring their families and friends into the scheme. The local newspaper further revealed that most investors from Nagoya and Tokyo have already sued the scheme before this arrest.
The prefectural police have received a legal notice from these Nagoya-based investors as far back as two years. Asahi Shimbun newspaper further remarked that agents are still combing the accused’s homes for more proof. Artificial intelligence remains a 2-way sword
Also read:The same artificial intelligence (AI) technology used by criminals for their fraudulent activities is also used to track them to their hideouts. Three years ago, the Dubai police used the AI tech in conjunction with other innovative technologies to track a group of swindlers involved in a $1.9 million Bitcoin armed robbery.
Also, earlier in the week, United Kingdom’s advertising standards authority announced the deployment of artificial intelligence, scraping technologies, and similar ones to monitor seemingly shady crypto ads on the internet.
Two People Lose Millions To Fraudulent Crypto Scams In Norway
Recently, crypto-related scams have been on the rise. Today, police from Innlander district, Norway, have warned citizens about shady crypto schemes after two persons lost 1.8 and 2.2 million kroner each in a recent fraudulent crypto scheme.
The district’s police head (Knut Johannson Odegaard) remarked that “these persons may never recover the money and suggested that citizens should desist from losing their money to sharks in the name of investing in crypto.”
He further said that “98% of these crypto schemes promising huge returns on investment are commonly shared on social media.” He also warned people from sharing vital bank information or credit card details on websites they visit through randomly sent links or with their family members.
The police district also warned most people are liable to lose their money when they ‘invest’ through these random links. Meanwhile, a man who claimed to co-found Bitcoin has also been arrested on allegations of crypto-related fraud. German police arrested him on his way out of Frankfurt airport.
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