Vietnamese woman arrested in Japan for allegedly laundering scam money

Japanese police said Tuesday that they have arrested a 34-year-old Vietnamese woman on suspicion of money laundering in voice phishing cases.

According to the National Police Agency, Nguyen Thi Huaon has been charged with violating the organized crime punishment law.

Huaon is suspected of laundering ¥30 million stolen through voice phishing in March 2025. She is also believed to have been involved in other cases through scam and money laundering groups.

The NPA’s cyber investigation squad analyzed losses totaling about ¥2.9 billion from around 80 voice phishing cases between October 2024 and April 2025, and found that about ¥1.5 billion of the money had been transferred to Vietnam.

The NPA squad then detected Huaon’s involvement in the money transfer by analyzing smartphone data seized in a separate case.

According to investigative sources, the scam group posed as financial institutions and used automated phone calls notifying companies of internet banking service renewals. The group then sent emails with links to fake websites to those who responded, instructing them to enter IDs and passwords on the websites in order to steal their information.

Funds stolen through the scheme were transferred to an account of the money laundering group in Vietnam, which Huaon introduced to the scam group. After passing through several other accounts, the funds were withdrawn from ATMs in Japan and returned to the scam group, including in the form of crypto assets. She and the money laundering group received a share of the stolen funds as compensation.

Given that stolen funds were withdrawn within a few hours, the NPA believes that Huaon played a key role in avoiding account freezes.