Police said Friday they have arrested three men on suspicion of running a mobile phone scam in which victims were billed for unwittingly listening to sexual or other messages by calling back a number that appeared on their phones.
Company executives Yasuo Suzuki, 33, and Masami Tanaka, 26, both of Tokyo, as well as Katsuaki Saito, 45, who worked at the same firm as Tanaka, have been arrested, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Authorities said the arrests were probably the first in connection with such a scam.
Five people who called the number left on their mobile phones between early February and mid-April were connected to a telephone set up at Tanaka's home in Shinjuku Ward that played recorded messages, many of them sexual, according to police.