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  April 14, 2013

Scam website earned 200 million yen (1.1 million USD) through fake emails claiming to be sent by idols. 2,100 people fell victims.

“Hey! It’s 5 minutes before the show!!”

“It finished! Now I’m leaving the theater!”

Many people so easily fall victims to dating scam sites that lure them with fake emails that claim to be sent by real celebrities or idols.

Last year, department of Consumer protection received 30,000 complaints regarding to this type of scam.

In 2012, Chiba police arrested a former president of a company that runs this type of website. According to the police, this website obtained 210 million yen from it’s users by fake messages that claimed to be sent from AKB48 members.

According to investigators involved in the case, their scam scheme is so elaborated that it effectively plays upon weakness of human nature of idol fans.

The former president was convicted of fraud and organizational crime soon after the arrest.

Around April of 2011, the company started sending spam phone messages under the name of a popular idol. The sender of the message, which was targeted at young men living in Tokyo metropolitan area, says it was sent by AKB Acchan.

Recipients of the message thought it may be sent from the incredibly popular female idol, Maeda Atsuko of AKB48.

In doubt but couldn’t resist the temptation, recipients started exchanging messages with the sender.

“5 minutes before the show!”

“We just finished the show!”

The messages were corresponding to what is written on official blog of real Maeda Atsuko, because the senders, a group of about 20 part time workers actually, were reading her and her friends blogs, and creating messages based on what’s written there.

Recipients needed to visit the company’s website to exchange messages with the fake idol, and once trial period is over, they were required to pay cash in order to continue conversation.

The price for secret conversation with your favorite idol? 450 Japanese yen, which is about 5 USD per message!!!

One recipient told us that he once got a message, asking him to meet up with “her”.
The message reads “Let’s meet! Better in the early morning before people set out to the town.”

He went to the station, where they planed to meet. The the phone rung.

“I’m so sorry. My manager suddenly came up!!”

At this point, he had no doubt but completely believed this conversation is real. Thus, despite a disappointment, he thought it was actually good as love relationship is banned in the idol group.

The cost of your love for your favorite idol? 2.7 million yen (27,000 USD).

He spent 2.7 million yen just for text conversation!

“Until I found her, life was meaningless for me. Her while existence gave me the reason to live. This scam is unforgivable.” he said.

Because AKB48 is so successful as business, and because this is a business that hugely relies on developing special relationship- the virtual love relationship, some say – between young girls and their loyal fans, and many of young boys spend a lot of money, buying a bunch of same records, which look like insanity to normal people, the group’s name is often used as an equivalent of “Lucrative business”.

But now, as this kind of idol scam is getting way popular, the name of AKB48 obtained another notoriety.

The brand new term “AKB scam” is first introduced on popular media when popular variety news show “Miyaneya” reported the news that Japanese police bureau is asking citizens to come up with the new term, a catchy one, for incredibly popular “Furikome Sagi” (Pay Up scam).

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Fortunately though, “AKB scam” is not just about the implicated connection between the Scam and questionable nature of AKB business, but it is also an acronym of a quirky phrase.

AKB, as Anta Kane Bukkomimayo.

Which means “Hey you! Why don’t you spend a bunch of money!”

While what are introduced by other media as popular names are “Drama Play scam” “deceiving parents scam” and “Impersonation scam”, Miyaneya, the show originated from Kansai, didn’t follow the normal path, but picked the most touchy one.

So far, fans of AKB are seemingly cool about this. Some comments on fans sites even say that this acronym perfectly deceives the reality of AKB business, or this is exactly about General Election.

While a few upset fans are making rants.


“So disappointed that some people in TV business don’t have common sense.
It is usually refrained to use a name of particular group in negative context unless there’s enough reason.” one fan wrote.

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source: 1, 2