An executive and eight others who worked at a website operator in Tokyo were arrested for allegedly scamming fees out of users of dating sites who were led to believe they were exchanging messages with celebrities, the Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.

The nine--including Takahiro Yamanaka, 34, a former executive of the Shinjuku Ward-based company, Wingnet, and former part-timers--were suspected of posing as celebrities and their agents to solicit users to dating sites the company operated, the MPD said.

Wingnet earned about 11.6 billion yen (US$122.44 million) from about 372,000 customers nationwide over 28 months up to June last year, the MPD said. It suspects the company earned most of its sales through the scheme.

The scam is the largest of its kind in terms of sales amounts and the number of users involved, according to the MPD.

In addition to arresting the nine, the MPD obtained an arrest warrant for the company’s 40-year-old president and was trying to discover his whereabouts.

Yamanaka and eight others were suspected of posing as Atsuko Maeda, 21, a former member of the popular idol group AKB48, and her agents. They allegedly exchanged messages with a 40-year-old company employee in Saitama Prefecture who had registered with a dating site Wingnet operated, scamming him out of about 1.4 million yen by charging him fees on 36 occasions from April to May last year.

Yamanaka denied the allegations against him, while five of the other eight admitted participating in the scam, according to the MPD.

The nine operated 22 dating sites from February 2010 to June 2012. They posed as agents for celebrities on Facebook, inducing users to the sites by sending them messages with the sites’ addresses as contact information, the MPD said.

After users registered with the websites for free, the “agents” sent them messages encouraging them to become friends with celebrities and give them advice. Those who played the role of celebrities replied to messages from users, saying they were happy to receive them, according to the MPD.

Users were able to exchange messages with the “celebrities” only through the dating sites, and were charged fees for sending and receiving messages, the MPD said.

In addition to Maeda, the nine posed as young actors as well as members of the popular boys group Arashi. Female users accounted for more than 80 per cent--or about 310,000--among those registered with Wingnet’s dating sites. About 60,000 users were male, according to the MPD.

The users paid an average of about 30,000 yen in fees to use the websites. One female user paid as much as about 4 million yen, the MPD said.

Wingnet hired about 170 part-timers to perpetrate the scam, with 50 working full day or night shifts, according to the MPD.