Matching App Honey Traps Exploit Every Weakness — From Affairs to Illegal Content
Case Files on Bijinbako [Part 1
“Smoothly led to a hotel with a woman” then, a tragedy
On June 27, in a murder case where a 32-year-old man was killed at a hotel in Nagoya City, a 20-year-old unemployed man was indicted for robbery resulting in death. On June 7, the man entered the hotel room where the victim was with a 19-year-old woman, whom the man claimed to be his sister, and accused the victim by saying things like “What are you doing with my sister?” When the victim resisted, the attacker strangled him and allegedly stole a bag containing about 40,000 yen in cash.
The 19-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of robbery-murder, and a 23-year-old unemployed man, believed to have directed the two, was also arrested on extortion charges.
The three arrested are believed to have plotted what is commonly known in Japan as a “tsutsumotase” (a honey trap scam). The victim had just met the woman near the hotel after drinking with coworkers and reportedly told those around him that “things moved quickly, and we ended up going to a hotel.”
Tsutsumotase is a long-standing crime, yet it never seems to disappear. This incident in Nagoya started with the woman approaching the man (reverse pick-up), but similar scams can occur through dating apps, social media, and men’s massage parlors.
This article will introduce the methods of tsutsumotase scams that have been increasing in recent years, particularly those involving dating apps. First up is a case in Hiroshima Prefecture in June, in which a 26-year-old man working at a sex-service information center, a 17-year-old unemployed girl, and a 19-year-old vocational school student were arrested on suspicion of extortion and related charges.
“It’s going to be child porn.”
A 17-year-old girl meets a man she met on a matching app. When they meet up, a male information office clerk and a vocational school student appear. He threatened the man with 31,000 yen in cash and a cash card, saying, “What are you going to do when you’re 17?” and “You’re going to become child pornography,” and threatened him with 31,000 yen in cash and a cash card.
He also demanded cash, saying, “Child pornography is a fine of 600,000 yen, what should we do if it’s not enough?” He moved to a convenience store, but the ATM was outside the hours, so the money was not withdrawn.
In cases like this case, women are minors, the victims tend to do what the perpetrator says because they don’t want the victim to be made public. There is a cheating beauty office that uses an affair as a way to take advantage of similar weaknesses, and a pregnancy scam that demands abortion costs and compensation for abortion, as mentioned below.
Between May 22nd and 24th, 2024, two women in their 30s living in Tokyo were arrested on suspicion of deceiving a total of 900,000 yen in three instances in the name of hospitalization and hospitalization costs by a man in his 30s living in Shizuoka City.
The two women and the victim met on a matching app, and they met for the first time on the same day and had sex at a hotel. During the act, the women suddenly claimed that “The birth control device has been removed”. He was asked for cash, so the man handed the money on the spot and broke up with the two of them.
However, the women continued to be unwilling to blame, such as “My stomach hurts” and “I have to go to the hospital.” A man who was increasingly distrustful filed a complaint and was arrested. The two women were friends.
No matter what the fraud is, minor, adulterior, or pregnancy, it is important to first check whether the other person’s claim is true, rather than just accepting the other person’s claims, but in some cases, they even had fake marriages for the sake of the beauty office.
The next one I would like to introduce is a beauty office by a couple who, according to their husband’s claims, “were married to legalize blackmail acts.”
“If you’re pregnant, you’ll get compensation.”
The Osaka District Court has sentenced a couple who were charged with extortion and other charges for threatening a total of 8 million yen from four men and women at the Beauty Bureau to the Osaka District Court this June to three years and six months in prison. My wife was a former prostitute and I met my husband on a dating site. A scout at the sex shop where his wife worked, planned a beauty office, and the couple signed up for marriage through the man’s agency.
The husband testified at the trial that he had no love for his wife.
The beautiful couple’s method involves a wife invites a man they met on a matching app to their home, and the husbands join in and threaten multiple men during sexual intercourse. He was said to be incredible, showing off gestures of punching him, saying things like, “What are you doing at a person’s family?”, “Look at the average compensation for an affair now,” and “I’ll go to work.”
The couple carefully prepared the matter, including hiring foreigners as bodyguards to prevent the counterattack. His wife was told by a former sex shop scout that she would “better to get (reparations) if she was pregnant,” and she was instructed not to use birth control.
There are many cases where people are caught up in crime, not just in Beauty Bureau, using matching apps as the opening points. The case where people say, “When I went to a designated restaurant, they were forced to order a large amount of alcohol and charged me 450,000 yen, and then they were deceived of a gold necklace for 2 million yen and a cash necklace as cancellation compensation for a non-existent reservation,” has been a popular method of rip-off in recent years.
There are also many other tricks to deceive, such as “I was advised to run an online shopping shop and deceived about 12 million yen,” and “A 27-year-old sex worker lied, saying, “I need skin treatment costs,” and deceived 150,000 yen from a man in his 50s.
Because matching apps are used to meet strange people of the opposite sex, it is difficult to know what kind of person you will meet. There is a possibility that you will meet a wonderful opposite sex, and there is a risk that you will encounter crimes such as the Beauty Bureau.
In the second part, Ikoma explains many more tricks to deceiving, including beauty services on social media and men’s beauty salons.
In Nagoya, a man was murdered after entering a hotel with a woman who had approached him—a case of a “reverse pickup.” (Note: All photos below are for illustrative purposes and unrelated to the honeypot incidents.)
In Hiroshima, a man lured by a 17-year-old girl via a dating app fell victim to a honeypot scam.
Around the Toho Building in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho, the area is also frequently used for meeting up through dating apps.Interview, text, and photos (2-4)： Akira Ikoma
