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Tokyo cops nab trio in attempted extortion of man met on dating site

Tokyo police have arrested three persons in the attempted extortion of a man met on a dating site in a parking lot in Chiyoda Ward
Tokyo police have arrested three persons in the attempted extortion of a man met on a dating site in a parking lot in Chiyoda Ward

TOKYO (TR) – A woman and two teenage accomplices performed pro-wrestling moves on and repeatedly blackmailed a man after luring him out to a parking lot in Chiyoda Ward through a deai-kei dating site, police said on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Hatsune Okumura, 22, a 19-year-old and an 18-year-old for allegedly luring the 28-year-old man to the parking lot, located near JR Kanda Station, in October 2016, Nippon News Network reports (Jan. 30).

The suspects then picked a fight with the victim by saying, “How dare you reach out to another person’s woman” and assaulted him, including the performing of pro-wrestling moves, before attempting to rob him of money, police said.

The suspects told police they were taught by friends that they “could easily blackmail through a badger-game scheme. Victims can’t sue, either.”

A badger game is an extortion scheme where victims, typically married men, are conned into a vulnerable position and blackmailed.

The suspect thought to be the leader of the group has admitted to the charges, quoted by Fuji News Network (Jan. 30) as saying, “I figured we could take their money without getting caught because victims wouldn’t go to the cops over prostitution.”

Police believe the suspects and their associates could be tied to at least four other cases involving a similar blackmail scheme over a three-month period starting from August 2016.