Amid a rise in scams soliciting money through social media by using celebrity names or taking advantage of romantic feelings, the Fukushima Prefectural Police are urging residents to be vigilant and are stepping up their investigations.
The two types of social media fraud cost people in the prefecture ¥328.2 million ($2.1 million) over 18 cases in the three months from January to March, already surpassing the ¥229.02 million over 23 cases reported in all of 2023.
Several more cases were confirmed in April, including one on April 11 in which a woman in her 60s in Aizuwakamatsu was found to have been swindled out of ¥14 million in an investment scam.