Police have arrested a 38-year-old man in Aichi Prefecture on suspicion of swindling a food delivery service firm by making false claims that ordered food had not arrived to obtain refunds.
Takuya Higashimoto, a resident of Nagoya, is suspected of having registered with Demae-can using a false name and address on July 30 and then receiving refunds worth some ¥16,000 from the company after claiming through the app's chat function that his orders had not arrived, even though the ordered items were delivered.
He is alleged to have placed 1,095 fraudulent orders with Demae-can since April 2023 by signing up and canceling his membership for the service once or twice a week, avoiding payments totaling about ¥3.7 million, according to the Aichi prefectural police department.
The police said the suspect has told investigators he committed the crime many times, including with other delivery services, after succeeding once.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.