A Scam Victim's Story
I received a contact form submission followed by several emails from a Japanese citizen called Akira Tanaka *. He seemed to have fallen victim to what is known as a "Romance scam".
Note: In the following emails the victim has been given the name Akira Tanaka. This name together with the address, telephone number and email address associated with it are fictitious and used to protect the person's privacy.
Read the emails and my responses and see how the scam progressed.
Contact Form submission received:
I replied in detail:
Date: 25/11/2025, 09:53
From: [Name and Email address redacted]
To: tanaka1951@gmail.com
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Hi Akira Tanaka,
Cortts Bank, Gray Peak Bank are fake banks and online bank websites have been created in order to defraud persons of their money... they are scam sites run by scammers.
I have not heard of WBlue Bank but most probably if it was associated with the address in Brigend Wales is a fake bank as well.
Note these banks are often given very similar names to genuine banks.
If you do a search for the address you have given you will find that although the address has the correct format for a UK post code, the address does not exist. Bullwood Road does not exist in Tondu, Brigend.
If you have deposited your own money in the Bank you have been defrauded and won't get your money back.
If you have been told that money has been transferred from an account belonging to Ms. Ichika Yoshida to an account in your name that is a lie as the bank does not exist. You will have been told this as part of a larger 419 scam that is being "played" on you, maybe the promise of a large sum of money from a "Japanese American" possibly an orphan if you will help them transfer some money.
You have not told me how you know Ms Ichika Yoshida but I would guess that you have been contacted by someone you don't know and who claims to be Japanese American. Unless they are communicating with you in fluent Japanese I would doubt they are of a Japanese background. If they have contacted you in fluent Japanese I would say that they are probably part of a Japanese based scam ring.
You have no doubt read the pages on my website about Cortts Bank or else you would not have contacted me. Check the attached images for information about "Ms Ichika".
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
227036994025722/posts/
1983398861722851/
I will give you one piece of advice: CEASE ALL COMMUNICATION WITH MS ICHIKA YOSHIDA AND ANYONE CONNECTED WITH ANY OF THESE BANKS.
I would be interested to see the communications from these scammers.
Regards
[Name redacted]
Akira Tanaka replied:
Date: 27/11/2025, 06:48
From: tanaka1951@gmail.com
To: [Name and Email address redacted]
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear [Name redacted]
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my inquiry.
I have confirmed that Gray Peak Bank is a scam.
I would like to share with you the details of my relationship with Ms. Ichika Yoshida and my involvement with WBlue Bank. Would it be okay if I sent the materials by email?
Notes:
Obviously I am eager to know more...
E-mail sent:
Date: 26/11/2025, 17:51
From: [Name and Email address redacted]
To: tanaka1951@gmail.com
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear Akira Tanaka,
I would be interested to have details of the communications between Ms Ichika Yoshida and yourself.
Regards
[Name redacted]
Akira Tanaka replied:
Date: 27/11/2025, 07:05
From: tanaka1951@gmail.com
To: [Name and Email address redacted]
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear sir,
I will send you her passport and employment card.
Notes: Fake id documents can easily be obtained but why would Ichika Yoshida be sending Akira Tanaka copies of id documents except to try and make the story seem more real?
Akira Tanaka replied:
Date: 27/11/2025, 06:48
From: tanaka1951@gmail.com
To: [Name and Email address redacted]
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear sir,
I first made contact with Ms. Ichika Yoshida in early August 2024. At the time, she was living in Minato Ward, Tokyo.
I live in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, and felt a sense of kinship with her because her mother was from Fukushima City, so we initially communicated through Facebook.
At the end of August that year, she asked to communicate through Line.
The content of our first Line conversation was as follows: "Good evening, my lovely friend , thank you for adding me here, you are truly amazing, I am happy to have you here as a friend, I just had dinner an hour ago, what did you have for dinner?"
She told me that she has a daughter, Caroline Tamika Yoshida, who is attending boarding school in San Diego.
Her US address was listed as Morenci St., San Diego, CA 92110.
She is an orthopedic surgeon and will be working as a US Navy orthopedic surgeon on the USNS Comfort hospital ship starting in mid-September 2024 on an initial one-year contract. Her message at the time was: "I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I'll send you photos as soon as I get to the airport. You are an amazing person. I'm very happy right now. My daughter Tamika is my only family. I'm sure she'll be happy to meet you. I can't wait to see you soon. Thank you so much for coming into my life. You are an amazing person. I want to rest now. Take care of yourself Have a wonderful night."
"I'm packing my luggage now. I've packed my travel documents and prepared my itinerary. I'm packing my passport now."
This is getting long, so I'll stop here for today.
Notes: The wording has all the characteristics of a "romance scam" being set up on Akira Tanaka. This is a long scam, spending time "building up a relationship" then asking or putting the "mark" in the position of feeling an obligation to assist the scammer financially overcome an emergency.
I reply back explaining how I think he is being lied to and scammed.
E-mail sent:
Date: 27/11/2025, 09:18
From: [Name and Email address redacted]
To: tanaka1951@gmail.com
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear Akira Tanaka,
Thank you for your email from what you have written I can get an idea what is happening.
You say that Ms Ichika Yoshida lives relatively close to you in Japan.
Have you ever met Ms Ichika Yoshida?
From what I have heard of Japan the country has a very good transportation system and if she has declined to meet and you have not met that is very much a warning sign.
I have the view from the wording of the email and the photographs in the second email that "Ms Ichika Yoshida" is running a "long scam" on you known as a "Romance scam".
Looking at the photographs you have sent me in the second email throws up further warning signs. From you telling me you are a retired person I make the assumption that you are a person in their late 60s and far older than the attractive young lady portrayed in the documentation. A further warning is the fact that she has sent you copies of her identity documents.
I am led to the following conclusions... The person in communication with you calling herself "Ms Ichika Yoshida" is not called that name. The photographs in the identity documents are not of the person in contact with you. I have come to that conclusion by doing reverse image searches on the photographs from the identity documents which I believe are fake. See the attached images J1 and J2 which I used for the search (these are just cropped faces from the id documents).
The image search results for j2 are in the image j3.
Conclusion a "glamour" photograph widely available on the internet has been stolen to be incorporated in a fake id card and to be sent to you.
I did a google reverse image search for the entire id card j4 and got the following results in j5 and J6 (I think AI has made a mistake with the issue and expiry dates).
Whatever you have been told are lies:
She is not on this hospital ship as a surgeon. Google search shows no link of this person with the ship.
She is not in USA now. She may never have left Japan.
She does not have a daughter and she is not at boarding school in San Diego. The name and address are probably fake or if real do not refer to someone who is "Ms Ichika Yoshida"'s daughter.
I am still interested to see how "Ms Ichika Yoshida" progressed his/her scam.
Regards
[Name redacted]
Attached photographs:
E-mail received.
Date: 28/11/2025, 02:17
From: tanaka1951@gmail.com
To: [Name and Email address redacted]
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear [Name redacted],
I'm grateful that you looked into Ms. Ichika Yoshida in the email I sent you.
I'd like to briefly explain what happened after I met her through the network.
1. As I mentioned earlier, she will be working on an American hospital ship starting in September 2024. She will return to San Diego from Tokyo and reunite with her daughter, Caroline Tamika Yoshida, then go to New York for training. She will then begin working on the ship in late September, passing through the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea and continuing her duties in the Adriatic Sea.
Because she will be working at sea, the internet connection is poor, so she said she can only communicate via Line.
2. Later, I received an email from Michelle, Caroline's teacher, informing me that her daughter, Caroline, had fallen off her bicycle, hit her head severely, and been rushed to Palomar Health Center in San Diego. Michelle said she found my email address in the records of my email correspondence with Caroline. I passed Michelle's news to Ms. Ichika via Line.
3. Dr. Philip Balikian, MD, from the hospital informed me of Caroline's injuries and the progress of her emergency surgery. I also received an initial medical bill of $36,782. I communicated this to Ms. Chika via Line.
4. I paid Caroline's initial medical bill by accessing her account at WBlue Bank using Ms. Ichika Yoshida's ID and password, which she provided me.
5. Ms. Ichika Yoshida asked me to open an account with her bank and hold her funds there, as there will be future considerations.
6. The various procedures for transferring her funds to my account were handled by Daniel Albert, a self-proclaimed Houston, Texas, attorney, at the direction of Spencer Frederick, the bank's branch manager. I paid the various fees required to open the account through the attorney.
7. WBlue Bank was subsequently renamed Cortts Bank, and then, in March 2025, Gray Peak Bank.
I will let you know again next time about the various expenses I have paid so far.
Notes: All the characteristics of a Romance type scam where the emergency requiring funds appears.
E-mail sent:
Date: 28/11/2025, 09:36
From: [Name and Email address redacted]
To: tanaka1951@gmail.com
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear Akira Tanaka,
It is with sadness I read of you paying out $36,782 to scammers for fictitious medical bills.
I would like to stress to you the total lies you are being told.
The persons named as Ms Ichika Yoshida, Caroline Tamika Yoshida, Michelle, Dr Philip Balikaian, MD, Daniel Albert, Spencer Frederick have not been contacting you. Scammers never use their own names. The people contacting you may be different scammers or just one person contacting you under different assumed identities from different email addresses.
1. As I mentioned earlier, she will be working on an American hospital ship starting in September 2024. She will return to San Diego from Tokyo and reunite with her daughter, Caroline Tamika Yoshida, then go to New York for training. She will then begin working on the ship in late September, passing through the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea and continuing her duties in the Adriatic Sea. Because she will be working at sea, the internet connection is poor, so she said she can only communicate via Line.
You need to re-word the above in these terms: As I mentioned earlier, she says she will be working on an American hospital ship starting in September 2024. She says she will return to San Diego from Tokyo and reunite with her daughter, Caroline Tamika Yoshida, then she says she will go to New York for training. She says she will then begin working on the ship in late September, passing through the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea and continuing her duties in the Adriatic Sea. Because she says she will be working at sea, the internet connection is poor, so she said she can only communicate via Line.
Do you see what I mean?
You have no evidence that she is actually doing any of the things you say she will be doing.
It is not uncommon for scammers to make up excuses as to why they cannot communicate with the "mark" via a video call.
2. Later, I received an email from Michelle, Caroline's teacher, informing me that her daughter, Caroline, had fallen off her bicycle, hit her head severely, and been rushed to Palomar Health Center in San Diego. Michelle said she found my email address in the records of my email correspondence with Caroline. I passed Michelle's news to Ms. Ichika via Line.
This is a typical emergency engineered by the scammers to get your sympathy. Michelle apparently found your email address. You did not say you were communicating with Caroline only her mother. Passing the news to Ms Ichika showed you had swallowed the "sob" story (an English expression for an upsetting story that makes you cry, also one that precludes a request for money). The hospital is a genuine healthcare facility inclusion in the narrative is to make the story more credible. Caroline and Michelle do not exist.
3. Dr. Philip Balikian, MD, from the hospital informed me of Caroline's injuries and the progress of her emergency surgery. I also received an initial medical bill of $36,782. I communicated this to Ms. Chika via Line.
Dr Philip Balikian, MD is a surgeon at the Palomar but I doubt he contacted you, see attached screenshot j7. First request for money $36,782 is more money that a retired couple in the UK would receive each year in the form of state retirement pensions! Ms Chka (I think you mean Ms Ichika) already knew!!
4. I paid Caroline's initial medical bill by accessing her account at WBlue Bank using Ms. Ichika Yoshida's ID and password, which she provided me.
5. Ms. Ichika Yoshida asked me to open an account with her bank and hold her funds there, as there will be future considerations.
6. The various procedures for transferring her funds to my account were handled by Daniel Albert, a self-proclaimed Houston, Texas, attorney, at the direction of Spencer Frederick, the bank's branch manager. I paid the various fees required to open the account through the attorney.
They scammed you. If there were any genuine medical bills you wished to pay the payment should have been made direct to the Hospital. The money you paid would have gone straight into the scammers bank account. Note any figures showing up in a fake online bank are not records of real amounts of money. If you have created the bank website you can put any amounts of "money" in you wish.
6. Daniel Albert is the name of a real attorney in Houston Texas, again I doubt he contacted you, he also specialises in Immigration law not estate or power of attorney areas of business. The names Daniel Albert and Spencer Frederick are names and identities assumed by scammers. Through making up various fees and you paying you have increased the amount of money the scammers have taken from you.
Whilst on the subject of fake banks I discovered another fake bank at the unlikely Brigend address:
Unity Regionalhttps://www.unityregional.com
The domain name was only registered on the 7th November 2025
Quickly browsing the site showed a number of inconsistencies from what claimed to be an established bank
See attachments
urb1 email address - placeholder text. Footer links do not link to specific pages/sections of the website.
urb2 telephone number - clearly placeholder text still present from the template used.
7. WBlue Bank was subsequently renamed Cortts Bank, and then, in March 2025, Gray Peak Bank.
These fake banks can quickly be shut down by the internet authorities so they have to keep creating new ones. They can probably create a new bank in a few hours.
wbluebnk.online and wbluebnk.live are listed online as being fake banks. Both are no longer online.
https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/wbluebnk.online
This website also looks suspicious:
https://bluebankonline.com/ single page for a bank?
This website has some interesting reading:
https://www.thedailyscam.com/fake-banks-2/
Regards
[Name redacted]
After quite a delay I received another email from Akira Tanaka.
E-mail received.
Date: 8/12/2025, 03:32
From: tanaka1951@gmail.com
To: [Name and Email address redacted]
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear [Name redacted],
I am sending you a screenshot of my account at Gray Peak Bank.
The funds in this account were entrusted to me by Ms. Ichika Yoshida.
When I try to transfer or remit money from this account, a red flag (Transaction Error) appears and I am unable to do so.
Mngr. Spencer Frederic (Foreign Operations/Transfer Manager Online Banking Unit) at the bank purchased a Coutts & Co. Silk Charge card and sent it to me, telling me that I would be able to use it to withdraw money from my account.
I paid $630 for the card issuance fee and $750 for shipping fees, including customs procedures, as instructed by Mngr. Spencer Frederic.
I would like your opinion on this.
Thank you in advance.
Attachments:
Notes: Note how the scammers make multiple requests for money for different services or admin fees.
E-mail sent:
Date: 08/12/2025, 10:39
From: [Name and Email address redacted]
To: tanaka1951@gmail.com
Subject: Re: New Response for "Potential Communications website - Contact Form"
Dear Akira Tanaka,
You do not appear to be taking notice of the information I give you that the Gray Peak Bank is a fake or fraudulent Bank and all the communication involving Ms Ichika Yoshida is part of a Romance type fraud which has already defrauded you out of a significant amount of money.
As stressed above the Gray Peak Bank is fake and the transaction error you report is an intended event that will occur when you try to transfer or remit money from the account. No money could be transferred because the amount shown in the account (as your screenshots) does not exist.
The Foreign Operations/Transfer Manager Online Banking Unit (a very grand title) said to be one Mngr. Spencer Frederic would not be able to purchase a genuine Coutts & Co Silk Charge card for these reasons as explained in more detail on the Google AI search report below:
Note:
- Coutts & Co Silk Charge cards are only issued to existing customers of the Coutts & Co Private Bank
- The Coutts & Co Silk Charge card cannot be used in conjunction with bank accounts at other banks.
Furthermore:
- Coutts & Co do not make a charge for their Silk Charge card
If you are in possession of what appears to be a Coutts & Co Charge card then it is a fake. So called Novelty Fake Charge cards on different financial institutions can be purchased online for a fraction of the cost you claim to have expended on acquiring this card namely US$630 + US$750 = US$1,380 in addition to the "Medical fees" payment you said you made of US$436,782.
Are you still in communication with the persons you have mentioned in previous emails and have you made any other payments?
STOP COMMUNICATING WITH SCAMMERS.
Regards
[Name redacted]
Notes: We will see whether we get a further response from Akira Tanaka
More information:
Novelty Coutts Silk Charge cards
Michael Fowler
Other articles by Michael Fowler:
Unclaimed Compensation Fund Scam - Michael Fowler
No less than the Chief Justice of Florida contacting me to make me aware of my unclaimed compensation fund, he does not go into why I am being compensated. The US$15.5 million fund though does not exist... more >>
Etihad Aviation Services Vendor Registration Scam - Michael Fowler
Scammers pretending to be from the Eithad Airline invite you and your company to join an approved list of vendors to supply aviation products and services to the airline... more >>
PNC Financial Services Group Fund Scam - Michael Fowler
In this scam email I am being offered US$8.2 million by PNC Financial Services on behalf of the United Bank for Africa. It is not explained why I and the other recipients are entitled to this enormous sum of money ... more >>