Tokyo police are stepping up a crackdown on a group that recruits women for sexual services by luring them on social media with promises of high incomes.

The group, called Akusesu, is believed to have earned a total of about ¥7 billion in five years by dispatching women to the sexual service businesses that offered the best pay.

"Such an illegal business model must be dismantled," a senior official of the Metropolitan Police Department said.