Japanese Man Exploits Loopholes In Food Delivery App, Eats Over 1,000 Free Meals

A 38-year-old man from Japan's Nagoya found loopholes in the food delivery platform Demae-can and misused the refund policy to get hundreds of meals for free, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. The food delivery platform suffered losses exceeding 3.7 million yen (US$24,000).

The man, named Takuya Higashimoto, used to place the order on the platform, and even after receiving it, he claimed that the food hadn't arrived to secure refunds for 1,095 orders over two years.

The report mentioned that Higashimoto, who has been unemployed for several years, used to order high-priced items like eel bento, hamburger steaks and ice cream.

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As per the report, he operated 124 accounts on Demae-can using fake names that were registered with the wrong addresses to evade detection. For the fake accounts, he used to purchase prepaid mobile phone cards with false credentials and quickly cancelled them.

The report mentioned that most recently, on July 30, he created a new account on the delivery app and ordered ice cream, bento and chicken steaks.

Even though the order was delivered, he used the app's chat feature to claim that he didn't receive anything and received a refund of 16,000 yen (US$105) the same day.

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As quoted, he told police, "At first, I just tried this trick. I couldn't stop after reaping the rewards of my fraud."

In the aftermath, the platform vowed to improve identity verification and implement an alert system for abnormal transactions.

The incident went viral on local social media platforms. As quoted, one user said, "The platform's refund policies need improvement. They are too lenient with customers."

"He is quite clever. I have to admit that he is diligent for opening so many accounts and manipulating the delivery platform," another said as per the report.