Police arrested a 17-year-old boy Wednesday on suspicion of defrauding another teenager of some ¥50,000 as a purported fee to have a photo taken with a member of pop group AKB48, police officials said.
The Metropolitan Police Department suspects the high school student in Saitama Prefecture defrauded several other people, receiving more than ¥300,000, with a similar scam via the Internet.
The charge is defrauding a 17-year-old boy in Tokyo last November, they said.
In some cases, there are legitimate photo ops for fans to be photographed with AKB48 members when they buy their CDs and photos.
Fans sometimes buy and sell them for up to ¥200,000.