A beautiful photo of a “solicitation woman” ripping off a teenage girl with the promise of earning 2 million yen a month.

A new development in the rampant rip-offs using matching apps in Kabukicho, Japan’s largest entertainment district.

By May 19, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division arrested two suspects, restaurant owner Yukiya Kinoshita (28) and Minami Chiba (25), on suspicion of violating the Employment Security Law for soliciting young women to work at “rip-off bars. Kinoshita denied committing the crime, while Chiba admitted to it.

The two suspects solicited two girls, who were in their teens at the time, on a street in Shinjuku City last March. They explained, ‘We’re going to lure guys with a matching app, so let them pose as customers and order overpriced drinks. It is said that he also told them that they could earn 2 million yen a month.

In an article distributed on April 7 of this year, “FRIDAY Digital” reported in detail on the rip-off tactics used by Kinoshita and other suspects at the restaurant where they work. We would like to recount the whole unforgivable act in its entirety (some corrections have been made).

If you lose, take off your clothes.

If you can’t pay, go to a convenience store and withdraw your money.

If you can’t pay me, you can go to the convenience store and drop your money off.

The bar staff yelled at the customers and demanded large sums of money from them.

On April 6, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division announced the arrest of a dozen male and female employees of a bar in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, on suspicion of violating the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s rip-off ordinance (prohibition of collecting unreasonable charges, etc.). The employees ranged in age from 19 to 34. The arrested women are alleged to have invited male customers they met on a matching app to their bar, had them drink alcohol, and made them pay several hundred thousand yen. At least five men were victims.

The woman met up with a man she met on a matching app at JR Shinjuku Station and other locations. She hid the fact that she was an employee and invited them to the bar where she worked, saying, ‘I have a restaurant I want to go to.

The restaurant would explain that ‘all you can drink for 5,000 yen,’ and invite customers to participate in a card game. The woman would invite the customers to ‘take off your clothes for a round of shots if you lose,’ and would get them drunk. Some customers were forced to drink nearly 100 shots in one gulp.

(A reporter for a national newspaper) Although the bar offered “all-you-can-drink for 5,000 yen,” the shots taken by male customers were not included in the system.

The shots were said to have cost more than 3,000 yen each. The restaurant refused to accept credit card payments for fear of leaving a trace. Only cash was accepted. Few people would be able to pay several hundred thousand yen in cash immediately after being charged several hundred thousand yen. Some customers were asked to pay more than 300,000 yen.

The employees surrounded the drunken customers and threatened them, saying, “Go to the convenience store and get the money. Go to the convenience store and withdraw the money! We won’t let you leave until you pay us! They would threaten the drunken customers, saying, “We won’t let you leave until you pay us! If they still didn’t have enough cash, they would go to jewelry stores and take precious metals that the customers had purchased with their credit cards. In some cases, they copied their insurance cards and driver’s licenses, and even broke into their homes,” he said.

Many of the rip-off bars are not usually open. They pretend to be open only when a female employee brings a man to the bar, and they do not allow other customers in. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the total amount of damage caused by rip-offs using the app this year alone amounted to 57 million yen.