Social Media Star Scammed! Yuh Kawasaki Opens Up About Losing Millions

Interrogation and investigation by a fake police officer claiming to be from the Yamanashi Prefectural Police

“If I had that money, what could I have done. Thinking about it makes me unbearably frustrated.”

Yuh Kawasaki, a freelance hair and makeup artist who has worked with Japan’s top idols and celebrities worldwide, and an official Ameblo-certified blogger who has visited over 500 cities in 130 countries, saw her sparkling daily life take a dark turn on August 11.

“A call came from an unknown number, and when I answered, the man said, ‘This is the Yamanashi Prefectural Police.’”

The man on the phone mentioned Yuh’s address and real name, then continued:

“You are being sued in an undisclosed case. You must come to the Yamanashi Prefectural Police immediately.”

It was past 4 p.m., and Yuh lived in a city far from Yamanashi, making it impossible to go there right away. When she replied, “I can come tomorrow,” the man pressed her further:

“Your Rakuten Bank account is being used in a massive money laundering case orchestrated by the ringleader, Tsutomu Adachi. The damage amounts to 70 million yen.”

Although this is a classic scam tactic, Yuh had not seen any news reports and was unaware. Just a few hours later, 6.81 million yen would be stolen from her account.

The fake police officer suggested conducting an interrogation via a LINE call

Yuh had a Rakuten Bank account but had no connection to a man named Tsutomu Adachi. However, the fake police officer said, “Adachi stated that he bought your Rakuten Bank account for 1 million yen and was supposed to pay you 7 million yen as a success fee.”

“What’s your relationship with Adachi?” she was interrogated, being requested to appear at the Yamanashi Prefectural Police immediately, when the fake police officer suddenly made this suggestion: “We can conduct the questioning over a LINE call.”

“When I searched the ID as instructed, an account with a police-like icon appeared. Before adding it as a friend, the fake police officer asked, ‘Is anyone else in the room?’ ‘If a third party is present, it won’t count as evidence,’ they said. After that, I was told to note down the case number, and I got scared, thinking ‘this is serious.’”

Once preparations were complete and the video call started, I was told, “We will transfer you to the Yamanashi Prefectural Police investigating the case,” and after a sound that seemed like a transfer tone, a young woman claiming to be a police officer appeared on the screen.

“The woman, introducing herself as Ayatsuki Sato, displayed her police badge prominently on the screen and then instructed me to show my ID. When I showed my passport over the screen, she said she would now investigate the signals from my smartphone. She said she would check whether I had any contact with the criminal group. After Sato said, ‘We are moving to the investigation room,’ the screen went completely black. But the call remained connected, and I heard knocks on the door and footsteps entering a room somewhere. The sounds were incredibly realistic.”

At this point, a third fake police officer appeared. “Is there a possibility of information leakage?” they asked.

“Had I used overseas shopping apps like SHEIN or Temu, lost or had my credit cards misused, or registered personal information in apps?” All of these applied to me, and I believed their story, thinking, “So that’s why I got caught up in this incident”

The fake police officers took advantage of the psychological gap created when I was treated as a victim rather than a suspect.

“If you don’t prove your innocence, you could be detained for up to 20 days,” they pressured me, adding that all my accounts could be frozen. They instructed me to consolidate my deposits into a single account for investigation.

Following instructions, I transferred the deposits from five of my seven accounts that could be sent online to a Mitsubishi UFJ Bank Okayama branch account as directed. The total amount was 6.81 million yen.

Before pressing the transfer button, I asked, “This isn’t a scam, right?” The fake police officer replied:

“If your innocence is proven, we will refund the money. We will also reimburse the transfer fees, so be sure to keep the statement.”

Immediately after the transfer, they said:

“If this were a scam, we would hang up the phone here, right?”

Thirty minutes later, I was shown three screenshots claiming that the full 6.81 million yen had been refunded. The account name was Kin’yu-cho. Looking back, it was obviously suspicious, but I had no mental room to notice while desperately trying to avoid arrest.

“I thought it was over, but they asked about the balances of the remaining two accounts and said, ‘Call at 10:30 tomorrow and record the balances.’ I was also made to read a document called the ‘Special Major Confidentiality Pledge’ and was forbidden from talking to family or friends or searching online about the incident, as it would constitute information leakage.”

The next day, on my way to record the balances, I checked online banking and saw the balances were zero. On YouTube, I found many videos of people scammed using the exact same method.

I rushed to a nearby police box and explained the situation. Meanwhile, messages from the fake police officer continued. The real police officer, however, said simply, “Just block them,” and calmly began explaining how to file a damage report.

“Why was I deceived? One reason is that I had no prior contact with the police. If I had even a little knowledge about the police, I might have noticed something was strange along the way. My personal information had been exposed so much that when they said my card was forged, I thought it was possible. Not having watched the news at all is also a point of reflection. If I had been keeping up with the news, I wouldn’t have answered that phone call. I regret it every day.”

Yuh, who has ample assets, felt the loss of 6.81 million yen sharply, but her life is not at risk. However, the fear from this special fraud persists.

“The criminal group knows my address, real name, and accounts, and even has a copy of my passport. I cannot say for certain that nothing will happen in the future.”

At least, I hope this confession can serve as a warning to others.

From the October 17, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”