In January 2023, Frank, a 63-year-old resident of the small town of Herriman, Utah, received an out-of-the-blue message from a woman identifying herself as Li Shuyuan. It turned out she had the wrong number, but they continued chatting. Soon, she was not only sending him pictures of herself, appearing to be an attractive young South Korean woman, but she also had an opportunity for Frank: a chance to invest in a Japanese alternative to Amazon called Ginza .
She sent him a link and it appeared to be a legitimate e-commerce platform. Screenshots of the now-closed Ginza site from 2023 show it was full of offers and adverts for well-known brands, from Calvin Klein to Dior . Li showed Frank how to open a fulfillment store on Ginza and they called it Yellowstone Sports & Fashions. The store enabled them to buy and sell outdoor sports gear like fishing poles and boots. Frank put in $2,000 worth of cryptocurrency , and Li set up a Ginza dashboard that showed him accruing significant returns.
Encouraged by the initial success, Frank borrowed another $1 million from family and friends to invest more in Ginza via crypto. Later, believing he’d scored nearly $4 million, Frank decided to withdraw the money. But to do so, Li told him he needed to pay $700,000 in taxes. He sold his cabin in Idaho for $290,000 and managed to pull together the rest, only to be told that, because of the remarkable success of his Ginza store, he’d need to pay another $700,000 in taxes. Frank gave over another $700,000. In total, he’d put well over $2 million into the apparent Amazon rival. And soon he’d learn the truth: it was all a scam . His money, and the funds he’d borrowed from his kith and kin, were gone…