On Tuesday, Daisuke Yamada, a 31-year-old resident of Tama City, and the two other suspects allegedly worked together in falsely telling a man, aged in his 50s and living in Fukushima Prefecture, that he had accumulated past-due fees from browsing an adult site.
The suspects have been accused of attempting to defraud the man out of 1.5 million yen in cash, according to police.
The suspects ran the scam from a residence in Inagi City. During a search of the headquarters, police seized a list containing about 1,000 names and phone numbers, police said.
All told, the suspects are believed to have used similar means to collect 800 million yen in about 3,600 cases since the beginning of the year.
