Case tokyo-horie-deepfake-investment-ringDeepfake fraudJapan
Tokyo police arrest Taiwanese collectors in 100M yen scam using deepfake of Takafumi Horie
Tokyo police arrested Taiwanese cash collectors for a ring that used an AI video of entrepreneur Takafumi Horie to pull a woman in her 80s into a LINE group promising 600 percent returns; losses near 100M yen ($650,000).
HighAttack using AIStatus: Under investigationVerified case file
Open in the interactive mapCite this case
- Reported
- Jun 26, 2026
- Location
- Japan
- Target
- Elderly Tokyo residents
- Severity
- High
- Triggered by
- Taiwan-based fraud ring using recruited cash collectors
- Actor type
- Criminal
- Reported loss
- $650K
- CVE
- None
What happened
Tokyo police arrested Taiwanese cash collectors for a ring that used an AI video of entrepreneur Takafumi Horie to pull a woman in her 80s into a LINE group promising 600 percent returns; losses near 100M yen ($650,000).
Impact: Nearly 100 million yen in estimated losses across the ring's victims; one elderly victim lost at least 5 million yen in cash
Who triggered it
Actor: Taiwan-based fraud ring using recruited cash collectors
Attribution: Tokyo Metropolitan Police (Kanda station); suspects recruited in Taiwan and brought to Japan on short-stay visas
Motive: Financial gain through fake investment scheme
How it happened
Attack vector: Deepfake endorsement video on a video platform, LINE messaging posing as staff of a real US investment firm, cash handovers in person
Root cause: Synthetic celebrity endorsement plus messaging-app grooming of elderly victims; cash collection avoided banking controls
Timeline
- Victim hands over cash on seven occasions between August and October 2025
- Fuji News Network reports arrest of 28-year-old Yen-Tsen Yeh as cash mule over 5 million yen
- Police announce arrest of a second Taiwanese woman, 29; wider ring under investigation
Response
Arrests and indictment of collectors; investigation expanded to the Taiwan-based organisers
Current status: Under investigation
Sources (open in a new tab)
- Tokyo Reporter tokyoreporter.com
- Seoul Shinmun (citing Nikkei) m.seoul.co.kr
- Lets Data Science letsdatascience.com
Cite this case
Tokyo police arrest Taiwanese collectors in 100M yen scam using deepfake of Takafumi Horie. AI Threat Watch, case tokyo-horie-deepfake-investment-ring, Jun 26, 2026. https://aithreat.io/cases/tokyo-horie-deepfake-investment-ring/
Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/tokyo-horie-deepfake-investment-ring/