Fake Japanese dating site racked up $80million in one year

When it comes to online dating, there"s never a sure fire way to ensure that the person you"re trying to woo is exactly who they say they are.

And that"s exactly what happened to the members of a dating site in Japan – when they realised that there was only one woman among the site"s 2.7 million strong users.

They had accidentally signed up to a ‘sakura site", which are scam dating sites known for employing staff to persuade users to pay for expensive memberships.

While this doesn"t sound hugely scandalous, they managed to rake in an impressive 10 billion yen ($80million) in 2012.

Here"s a typical ‘profile" that love struck users can expect to see on a Sakura site.

While the sites have been outlawed by the Japanese govement, it didn"t stop one user from reportedly spending around 13 million yen (£65,000) in his quest for true love.

Now this campaign by the Japanese govement has mocked the sites in a bid to crack down on their usage.

Appearing in the guise of a typical Sakura site, one speech bubble reads: ‘Sorry. I can"t meet you. (I"m just a sakura after all).