From the Daily Yomiuri:
A Yokohama-based group of gangsters, motorcycle gang members and former computer software programmers swindled about 10,000 people out of a total of about 1 billion yen ($10M US) in charges for more than 100 fictitious dating service Web sites it set up, sources said. Out of more than 100 members, the Kanagawa prefectural police have decided to question about 20 they believe are central figures within the group, the sources said. The police believe the crime is one of the largest cases of fraud involving charges for dating services in the country. The group allegedly opened an office named Nihon Global System in Seya Ward, Yokohama, as an operator of dating service Web sites.Prospective male customers were sent self-introductions from young women that were actually written by male part-time employees, the sources said. To see women’s photos and receive their e-mail addresses, the male customers were told they had to pay an annual membership fee. The group is suspected of having swindled each customer out of about 50,000 yen ($488 US) in such fees. There were about 600 notices from fictitious women on the Internet bulletin boards. When customers were unable to contact the women, many complained to the operator, but the group allegedly changed Web site addresses and names on receiving such complaints.
In addition, the group reportedly called its members, falsely claiming that they had not paid their fees for other sites and defrauding them of about 300 million yen ($3M US). The group also is suspected of having called people they did not know and asking them to deposit money into a bank account to settle traffic accidents out of court that they said involved the people’s relatives. Motorcycle gang members in Kamakura in the prefecture opened bank accounts and withdrew any money that was deposited, the sources said.
Dating service Web sites have been seen as a hotbed of crime, including child prostitution, robbery and murder. In September 2003, a law to regulate such Web sites was enacted to prevent them from being used as a method of soliciting prostitutes.
It’s only a matter of time before this sort of thing happens in the US and EU. I’ve heard talk about scams but nothing as substantial as this.
