TLDR: Wife got scammed in FX investment Ponzi scheme by a “friend” who is an agent for the company. Does the agent have any liability in the scam?
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Recently my wife got scammed by an FX investment Ponzi scheme. A person she mistakenly trusted promoted investment in something called SkyPremium which is an FX scam that works like Amway (pyramid style but you get absolutely nothing).
Agents for SkyPremium promote these ridiculous gains and ask that you invest as well. For every person who invests with the Agent, the agent gets 10% back in cash.
My wife trusted this Agent (who she, and I, thought was our friend) and gave them a large sum of money. An account was created, and interest started coming in. The account was apparently making 10+% interest which started raising red flags. We are leaving Japan pretty soon and my wife wanted to withdraw the money. She asked for the money about 6 weeks ago, and nothing.
She then brought it up to me and I “investigated” the companies behind it. The second link when you search is from [Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Committee](https://www.fsa.go.jp/sesc/news/c_2021/2021/20211208-1.html) stating basically “don’t put money here”.
While, my wife fully recognizes that she should **NOT** have put money here. The trust factor was strong, but she realizes that she made a mistake. She, and I, are wondering if the Agent who is working for this company (and getting commission) did something or is doing something illegal?
She went to consult the local police (after calling the central police who guided her there). They basically called her a dumb ass (Omae ha baka… Omae ga warui. which isn’t totally untrue, but I expected a bit more in their choice of words). If they can’t/couldn’t help, cool, but no need to get nasty with the person who got scammed and show they have very little interest in the scammer themselves. This agent has gotten well over 100mil JPY from many people. She has likely invested some money herself as well (and could also just be a pawn in the scam, but she does get 10% of the money others invest… which is well over 10mil JPY).
If anyone has some sage advice for an avenue of attack or to just tell me to let it go. I have resigned myself that the money is gone, but if there is some way to make sure others don’t get scammed? Punishing the company and more importantly the agent who used her trust to scam her “friends” is what we want to happen, but I am also realistic that it may never happen.
10 comments
Unfortunately you’re more than likely going to have to write this one off. With a limited time before you leave Japan, it won’t be worth it.
Take it as a teachable moment for your wife and leave the money behind.
If she wants to she can try filing criminal charges, expect it to take weeks and lots of trips to the police station before they’ll actually take a complaint.
As for the money, yeah, kiss it goodbye.
Do you have yakuza friends?
The police won’t help in this situation. It’s not like they will go to the friend and tell him to return the money while brandishing their baton or service revolver.
The only thing you can do is if you think you have sufficient evidence to press criminal charges for fraud, you would have to go to a lawyer, then file it with the courts. If he is found to be really guilty of fraud, he might get jail time if it involved many people and a huge sum of money, but hard to say if you will see your money back. But this isn’t easy because Criminal cases, “the evidence must exceed a reasonable doubt” not “by preponderance of the evidence.”
Otherwise you could try to sue him, but worst case if he is bankrupt, that won’t get your money back either.
In either case though, it is hard to say what can be done because he could be acting as an employee of a company which would require you to litigate against the company not him. Also investments always inherently carry risk so that also chips away at your legal recourse against them.
Contact these and they’ll give advice on what to do next – be it setting up a meeting with a lawyer, or whatnot:
[https://www.houterasu.or.jp/en/](https://www.houterasu.or.jp/en/)
The proper way is of course talking to a lawyer especially if the amount big. You could sue the friend . Would you be successful that’s what the lawyer could answer.
There are also tv programs like トラブルSOS you could try to submit your story. Some people would probably say everything on tv fake. Maybe
I have experience with people around me being victims of scams like this.
1. An investment scam where a guy claimed 30% returns on a few million yen investment. The victim got suspicious and took a photo of the guy’s license plate. The police did absolutely nothing to help, even with photos, license plate number, and all the evidence of the scam. Even after consulting with a lawyer, nothing could be done.
2. A boiler room investment scam worth millions and millions of yen. The scammer used a fake virtual office address. The police didn’t want to even hear about it and they had to really push hard just to make a statement.
3. An fake online store. Even though the police were given the bank account that the money was transferred to, all emails, and the website, they did…you guessed it nothing.
So I wouldn’t prepare for frustration. The police seem to be more concerned with checking for stolen bicycles and searching foreigners.
They’re based in Singapore, so you have little recourse available to you from Japan. The FSA is already working to shut down their operations here, which is about the best you can hope for, unfortunately.
If the police won’t do anything and there is no hope of getting your money back, it seems like vigilante justice is the only option.
I had a friend who got taken by a similar scheme. She and her other agent friends *truly* believed in the product and in the business. They were just pawns like others. This particular scam targeted women specifically and my friend really believed they were “empowering” women businesses, etc.
SkyPremium looks a little different to me, in that they have a limited number of Agents and separately a larger group of members who put investments. (With Amway I believe every member is also effectively an agent).
But from what I can tell, these Agents are basically just mules used by SkyPremium to recruit general members and funnel their money to foreign bank accounts.
They likely had zero idea that they’ve been part of a scam, at least initially. The ones who continue *after* they realize it is a scam, deserve to be criminally charged. (Many though are probably in self-denial).