Scam Group Exploits Disabled Individuals with Overpriced Charges and Sauna Confinement

They went to the victim’s family home to collect the debt

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division arrested four men and women, including Shunta Suzuki (22), the owner of a bar in Shibuya, Tokyo, and employee Shiori Ohno (21), on suspicion of confinement and violating Tokyo’s anti-ripoff ordinance by repeatedly tricking men using a matching app for people with disabilities.

“Suspect Suzuki and his group lured men in their 20s, users of the matching app for disabled people, and sent female employees of the bar to meet them. The female employees told the men, ‘There’s a place I want to go,’ and took them to Suzuki’s bar, where they ordered a two-hour all-you-can-drink plan for 5,000 yen.

After that, they suggested playing card games and made the men drink a large amount of alcohol. At checkout, they falsely claimed the men drank alcohol not covered by the all-you-can-drink plan and demanded 340,000 yen,” said a social affairs reporter from a national newspaper.

Suspect Suzuki also stole cash from the victim’s wallet and forced him to withdraw money from a convenience store ATM.

“Suzuki and his group even made the victim apply for a loan at a consumer finance company. While waiting for approval, they confined him for eight hours at a sauna in Minato Ward, keeping a guard to prevent escape. The victim told the police, ‘I have a disability affecting my lower body and thought I would be caught immediately if I tried to run, so I couldn’t escape,’” the same source said.

Suzuki and his group’s heinous crimes do not end there.

Similar overcharging incidents have occurred in the past as well

“Around collecting debts,” they forcibly showed up at the victim’s family home, making unreasonable complaints such as, “While you were handling the ATM procedures, we couldn’t serve other reserved customers, so their reservations were canceled,” and forced payment totaling 2.4 million yen,” said a national newspaper social affairs reporter.

At the bar run by suspect Suzuki, a scam team called the “Shunta Group” reportedly came and went daily.

“The roles were strictly divided: people to lure men in, cast members to bring men into the bar, hall staff to charge high fees, ‘guards’ to prevent customers from escaping and to watch out for the police, and ‘guarantors’ who made the victims sign loan contracts with consumer finance companies. Since around September last year, there have been a flood of complaints about this rip-off scheme. The total number of victims has reached 54, with total damages amounting to 80 million yen.

Among those 54 victims, four had disabilities such as visual impairment, lower limb disability, depression, and developmental disorders. One visually impaired man appears to have paid without being able to check the amount charged. These four alone suffered damages totaling 4.1 million yen,” said a police source.

Will the group members ever come to feel shame, reflect, and repent their cowardly and despicable acts of preying on society’s vulnerable, locked behind bars?