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Nepalese man posing as Ohtani on social media arrested on suspicion of fraud NHK

A: Hey buddy, heard some juicy news!
B: Yeah? What's up?

A: Turns out they nabbed this 26-year-old guy from Nepal in Tokyo for fooling an old woman!
B: No way! What did he do?

A: He was pretending to be that famous baseball player, Ohtani Shohei, and his agent!
B: Whoa, talk about chutzpah! What did he ask her for?

A: He'd been scamming her since last November on social media. Claimed he needed insurance money because he's the best player in the world. And said he'd pay back when he returned to Tokyo.
B: But she gave him one million yen, right? That's a lot of cash!

A: Yup, and when she wanted to talk to Ohtani, he said the game was starting, so he couldn't chat. Crazy, huh?
B: I can't believe it! And they caught his dad too, because he transferred most of the money to his account here.
A: That's right! The police arrested them both. Quite a story, eh?
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NHK has learned that police in Tokyo have arrested a 26-year-old Nepalese man on suspicion of defrauding an elderly woman by pretending to be Major League Baseball star Ohtani Shohei as well as his agent.



Investigative sources say Niure Suman Kumar contacted the Tokyo woman in her 80s last November through a social media account. His message purported to be from the Los Angeles Dodgers player.



The suspect allegedly pretended to be Ohtani for several months. The sources say he asked the woman for money with messages such as, "Huge insurance premiums are necessary for me because I'm the world's number one," and, "Don't worry about anything, because I will pay everything back when I return to Tokyo."



When the man met the woman in person, he allegedly posed as Ohtani's agent, and she gave him one million yen, or about 7,000 dollars, in cash.



When the woman asked to speak to Ohtani on the phone, the suspect told her the baseball player was unavailable as a game was about to start.



The suspect is said to have transferred most of the fraudulent proceeds to a bank account of his father, who lives in Japan. Tokyo police have also arrested the father.
Summary
Tokyo police arrested a 26-year-old Nepalese man for allegedly defrauding an elderly woman by pretending to be baseball star Ohtani Shohei and his agent. The suspect, Niure Suman Kumar, contacted the woman on social media last November, posing as Ohtani. He asked her for money under false pretexts
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ID: bedb4b3d-1c2d-4f56-9a9c-5f008b7d8ec8

Category ID: nhk

URL: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250624_18/

Date: June 24, 2025

Created: 2025/06/25 07:10

Updated: 2025/12/08 03:33

Last Read: 2025/06/25 07:45