3 Vietnamese men pretend to be Jungkook BTS to scam Japanese women

Pretend to be Jungkook BTS to scam. On December 5, Hyogo Prefectural Police and Toyama Prefectural Police, Japan arrested three Vietnamese men residing in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo to investigate charges of fraud and appropriation of property.

According to the initial investigation and the testimonies of the victims, from September to October, 2022, many Japanese women were tricked by these men because they thought these men were Jungkook (BTS) and texting. The women thought it was the real Jungkook and they believed they were texting with the Idol.

Fake Jungkook asked the women to transfer money to fly from South Korea to Japan to date. The total amount scammed was more than 300 million JPY (more than 2 million dollars).

According to the Hyogo Prefectural Police, the three Vietnamese men are: Do C. L. (or Do Cong Son, 33 years old, unemployed), Nguyen T. T. (23 years old) and Nguyen V. L. (26 years old).

Specifically, in October, a woman living in Wakayama Prefecture was interacting with a fan group of K-pop group BTS on Twitter, then she received a direct message (DM) in English from someone claiming to be Jungkook (a member of BTS). This woman believed he was the real Jungkook and texted with an impostor through a messaging app.

Once he had tricked the woman, the impostor told her, “I’m going to Japan for your birthday” and asked the victim to deposit JPY 210,000 to buy a plane ticket for the whole boy band.

From September to November, the suspects scammed a total of 460 000 JPY from ATMs in Chiba Prefecture and Edokawa-ku, Tokyo.

According to the Hyogo Prefectural Police, three Vietnamese men scammed 40-year-old women in Toyama and Wakayama prefectures. After searching the place where the men were staying together, the police found a lot of bank cards belonging to other Vietnamese people.

In total, they scammed 479 women, asked victims to transfer money to 97 bank accounts, and appropriated more than 332 million JYP (more than 2 million dollars).

Initially, the suspects admitted to the crime.

Some netizens commented, “It must have been a memorable birthday party.”