The Japanese police have arrested Four men in Aichi Prefecture for allegedly running a fraudulent crypto scheme that drew in thousands of Japanese investors and also scammed them in the end.
Four individuals have reportedly been arrested in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture for allegedly conducting a fraudulent crypto investment scheme that promised investors profits based on an AI-led trading system.
Approximately 20,000 Japanese investors are said to have been enticed into the scheme, which raised a total of 6 billion yen ($55 million) across the country.
According to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, the four suspects were arrested on July 12: Shoji Ishida, Yukihiro Yamashita, Takuya Hashiyada, and Masamichi Toshima.
The alleged hoax branded the “Oz Project,” promised investors that the automated, AI-led system would return 100% of their initial investment, with guaranteed earnings of two-and-a-half times the original value over the course of four months.
According to Asahi, several of the scheme’s investors have filed legal cases demanding damages in Nagoya and Tokyo.
The Oz Project had a dedicated staff member who hosted seminars and briefings for members, as well as encouraging them to create and participate in a special investor group on the popular Japanese messaging app LINE.
Many participants are thought to have enrolled their friends and relatives as a result of this method.
Nagoya-based investors have filed criminal accusations with the prefectural police as early as September 2019, prior to yesterday’s arrests. According to Asahi, the police have searched the suspects’ homes for additional evidence.
While malicious actors continue to employ artificial intelligence and other new technologies to make their schemes more appealing, the technology has also been used to track down and prosecute such offenders.
Dubai police employed smart programming and AI technologies to track down a gang responsible for a $1.9 million armed Bitcoin (BTC) crime as early as 2018.
The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom announced this week that it is beefing up its ability to track problematic crypto adverts online using scraping and artificial intelligence technologies.
