Aichi police arrest matchmaking boss Yuta Ishida over dating app crypto scam targeting 5,600 men

Aichi Prefectural Police arrested Yuta Ishida, a 40-year-old matchmaking agency executive from Aizumisato, Fukushima Prefecture, and four other men on suspicion of fraud, Kyodo News reported on September 2, 2026, alleging the group used female decoys on dating apps to steer men toward fake cryptocurrency investments.

How the crypto scam allegedly used dating apps

Investigators say the alleged crypto scam relied on a matchmaking operation and social media recruitment to create an apparently legitimate path from dating conversations to cryptocurrency investment.

According to police, women were recruited through social media with offers of what was presented as a “side job” involving sales assistance for a matchmaking agency.

The women were allegedly instructed to establish profiles on dating applications and communicate with male users. Their initial role, investigators say, was to build relationships with potential targets and obtain their Line IDs.

The conversations would then move away from the dating platforms and onto Line, the widely used messaging application.

At that stage, police allege, the men behind the operation took over the communications.

Rather than continuing the conversations as romantic prospects, the suspects allegedly encouraged the targeted men to invest money in cryptocurrency. The eventual objective, according to investigators, was to persuade victims to transfer or surrender their digital assets.

The alleged method highlights how conventional online social engineering can be combined with cryptocurrency transactions. Instead of approaching victims directly with an investment proposition, the suspects are accused of first establishing contact through dating applications and using apparently personal relationships to gain their trust.

The women allegedly recruited for the operation therefore served as the first point of contact before the conversations were handed over to others.

Police discover thousands of potential targets

The scale of the alleged crypto scam became clearer after investigators examined smartphones seized during the arrests.

Police said the devices contained a database of contact information belonging to approximately 5,600 men.

The discovery has raised questions about how many people may have been approached by the alleged syndicate and whether the cryptocurrency losses extended significantly beyond the single case currently cited by investigators.

Authorities are now analyzing the confiscated smartphones and other information as part of their investigation.

The database does not, by itself, establish that all 5,600 individuals were defrauded. However, its existence has given investigators a potentially significant body of information with which to examine the alleged operation, identify contacts and determine whether additional victims were targeted.

Police are continuing to investigate the full extent of the alleged crypto scam and the roles played by the suspects.

The investigation could also help establish how the matchmaking agency was allegedly connected to the recruitment of women and the subsequent cryptocurrency solicitations.

Investigation continues into alleged crypto operation

The alleged crypto scam involved a 39-year-old Tokyo office worker who police say lost about 150,000 yen worth of cryptocurrency during the period from October to November 2025.

The case illustrates the difficulties investigators can face when fraudulent schemes combine dating applications, messaging platforms, social media recruitment and digital assets.

Cryptocurrency can be transferred electronically, while communications with potential victims can move rapidly between different platforms. In this case, police allege that the suspects exploited that combination by using dating applications to establish initial contact before moving conversations to Line.

The alleged use of female decoys also appears to have been central to the operation. Police say the women were recruited under the impression that they would perform sales-related work for a matchmaking agency, before being instructed to communicate with men on dating applications.

The suspects allegedly took control of those conversations after the women obtained the men’s Line IDs.

Investigators have not said how many women were recruited, how long the alleged operation had been running or how much cryptocurrency may have been obtained in total.

Those questions are likely to form part of the continuing investigation as police examine the seized devices and the approximately 5,600 contacts reportedly found on them.