Unemployed man in Japan eats a thousand free meals in two years

A 38-year-old unemployed man in Japan has been arrested on suspicion of obtaining over a thousand meals for free over two years by exploiting a loophole in a food delivery app. By abusing the order cancellation and refund system, he caused the company a loss of over 3.7 million yen, or approximately $24,000.

According to reports, Takuya Higashimoto, a resident of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, exploited features of Demae-can, one of Japan's major food delivery platforms, for over two years. He used several methods to ensure his fraud would not be easily detected.

Investigators stated that Higashimoto opened a total of 124 accounts through the app. Most of them were registered using fake names and false addresses. The man typically used prepaid cards to open accounts and canceled his membership a few days later, making it difficult for the platform to track his actions and stop the fraud.

Japanese media reported that Higashimoto would order food on the Demae-can app and select the contactless delivery option. After the food was delivered, he would falsely claim he had not received the order to get a refund.

For example, on July 30, he opened a new account with a fake name and address. He then claimed that ice cream, a bento box, and chicken steaks were not delivered, successfully obtaining a refund of 16,000 yen, or about $105.

"I just tried this method at first. Once I started profiting from my fraud, I couldn't stop," Higashimoto confessed to police after his arrest earlier this month.

The man, who has been unemployed for several years, was arrested earlier this month and officially charged with fraud. His success in obtaining over a thousand free meals in two years prompted the delivery platform to take action.

Demae-can has introduced an alert system that detects suspicious and abnormal transactions to prevent similar incidents in the future. The new system is aimed at timely detection of unusual activity and limiting fraud on the platform.