President Of Japanese Dating Company Arrested For Fake Celebrity Profile Scam

The owner of a dating company alleged to have used fake profiles of celebrities to defraud users has been arrested.

The 38-year-old man was initially arrested for the fraud charges earlier this year, then fled the country at the end of September.

However he was apprehended again when he tried to return to Japan this month.

The man was the president of Shinjuku Ward-based software company Free World, which operated dating business Wing Net.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police said Wing Net used sites like Facebook to create fake profiles of famous entertainers, such as AKB48 member Atsuko Maeda.

According to TBS News, the company then charged users to talk to these fake profiles via 22 different matchmaking sites owned by Wing Net.

It is alleged that in 2012, a 40-year-old man spent 1.37m yen (£10,000) speaking to a fake profile of Atsuko Maeda.

And investigators believe that Wing Net made 11.6bn yen in revenue, most of which is expected to have come from fraudulent behaviour.