Hello everyone. So recently, I got scammed big time by this “Task Scam” in WhatsApp. The scam goes like this: [read here](https://hkubota.wordpress.com/2023/09/15/scam-ahead/)
I lost a huge amount and I am trying to figure out how can I get my money back. I was so hopeful because I got their bank account details too since I am sending money to those accounts. I reported it to the police but it will take some time for them to get back to me and I am on the verge of accepting the fact that the police will not be able to help me get my money back since they also told me that they cannot force those people who scammed me to return my money to me.
I’m so stupid and desperate. I am already in so much stress about this. I wonder if someone here has an idea on how I could get through this or if there is a hope for me to get my money back from these scammers with the help of their bank details that I have.
By the way, their bank is in Japan too. I know that opening an account here is pretty strict so I am really hopeful that these scammers are here in Japan.
26 comments
I bet that they bought that bank account from someone who was about to leave Japan for good.
Best to accept that your money is gone. The scammers will have taken it out of Japan as soon as they were able.
They will use the accounts of other victims to move money around and make the trail harder to follow, ultimately they’ll transfer the money into an account that they’ve purchased from a departing student or some such, and then have a local person withdraw from that account and then transfer the money out internationally from an unrelated account or using an untraceable system like hawala.
This, by the way, is why you can no longer keep an account open after leaving Japan. Too many departing students selling their accounts after being told they’ll be used by undocumented workers to receive salary, when in actuality they’re used to facilitate organised criminal enterprise.
I fought with a friend once when I told him this was a scam and he kept insisting that it was legit. Wonder what happened to him now
Oh! I got those messages almost every week! I thought it was similar to LinkedIn, but I never take them seriously , I reply in fake Chinese and they never write back lol . Gonna start reporting them
This fucking scam.
I get this weekly on my personal and work phone always from a random number outside of Japan telling me they have a job for me. I think they’re doing this to a lot of people.
Absolute cunts.
This scam is common in my country too. You probaly got money from another victim and you sent money to another victim. This is a shithole. It is very unfortunate you fell into that trap. The bad thing is there is no guarantee the victim who sent you money will not sue you. I am not sure about your situation but they do it this way back in my country. Never forget, none gives away money for free
I got the money and then blocked them. You all should do the same so these suckers stop scamming people.
Sorry this happened to you.
As another user has said, it is best to admit your money is gone and you will not get it back. I know it is not what you want to hear, but I would lie if I told you otherwise.
Now, what people have not mentioned yet is that you should be careful from now on. Now, in a moment of desperation (that you just made public), you may be targeted by so-called “recovery scammers”. People that would claim they can get your money back…for a price. You’ll pay, then they will need just a bit more, just one more fee…until you have nothing. Please be aware of this.
Also, in case you do not know them, there is an active community on Reddit (/r/scams) where you may find useful information and feedback.
hkw does it work?
Watch out for recovery scammers. The money is gone, Police can’t do shit.
Watch out for recovery scammers. The money is gone, Police can’t do shit.
It’s not so strict to open an account. It can be done online. It’s unfortunate that you have been preyed upon. Just have faith that things will work out for you and against them.
Get a lawyer. Immediately. Most probably you’ve lost the money. But a lawyer might be able to help a bit. If nothing else, might help with your taxes and how you can avoid being audited.
As others have said, its best to just consider the money gone. At best you MIGHT be able to get their Japanese bank account closed, but to the people doing this it will be a mild inconvenience at most and they likely have a number of other accounts at the ready.
But don’t consider this a total loss. You have learned a valuable life lesson. If the setup of this scam is as the article you linked described, there are a huge amount of red flags from the get go and it gets more and more suspicious as the scam goes on. The fact that you fell for it up to the point of sending them money kind of tells me you would have been scammed eventually, if not now then later. Hopefully you grow from this and don’t let yourself get tricked again in the future.
You’ll never get your money back. You only get the wisdom
You might not recover the money but if you report it to the police that at least starts a process. You might be able to get something back, but also it will help stop this, and give you closure.
You could try talking to lawyer but I’m not sure if you can get the money back or not. It seems SNS scam victim yields results on Japanese Google though if you wanna try looking for someone to take your case
This is also what the Financial Services Agency advises: https://www.fsa.go.jp/policy/kyuusai/furikome/index.html
The money is gone. Dont waste time or money on this anymore. Just dont fall for obvious scams anymore. Of course no one is gonna randomly offer you a 30k yen per day job online..
Any cold messages I get on WhatsApp get blocked and reported. I’m not looking for work so I just dismiss them all as potential scams.
you seriously think having “their bank account detail” is enough to get your money back? You just got double scammed. I bet that is not even their account. Im so glad I havent fall to this kind of scam yet, only because I am so lazy and I am 100% aware that there is no such thing as easy money. Keep that in mind, and no matter how stupid you are (because I am damn stupid) you will not be easily scammed.
How much money did you lose ?
how much?
1. You won’t get your money back.
2. The scammers have you on a list of “people who fell for a scam” so you will see an increase in these unsolicited scam messages in the future. Be careful.
always reply to random whatsapp message with, “what’s the scam this time?”
they usually don’t reply if it’s a scam
take the information to the police. my wife got scammed by a fake website about 7 years ago and i provided all the evidence i could to the police. after a few months they caught and she got back 1/10 of the money
they were running a website though, whatsapp a lot easier to hide.
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edit: a word
Your money is gone, thousands of old people in Japan lost their retirement savings to scam.
Life lesson is expensive, better lose a few 万 now than your retirement savings later.
OP has to be really stupid to fall for this.