Foreign Gang Scams 10 Women on Dating Site for Thousands of Yuan

Foreign Gang Scams 10 Women on Dating Site for Thousands of Yuan
Jan 11, 2016 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s Note: Would you pick up a $5 million package for a person you only met on the internet? A Chinese woman ran into a big scam when she agrees to pick up a huge sum of money for her new online paramour. She was forced to pay a number of fees to receive the money, which then taken away and “deposited.” The gang had actually run the scam on 10 different women from different areas of China and were finally caught in Shaoxing.

A woman from Shaoxing named Liu met an American man named Jesse on an online dating site. Jesse claimed that he was a retired senior official from the U.S. military. He soon started to pursue Liu through email and video chat. Liu thought that that Jesse seemed very refined from the way that he spoke.

Jesse said that he wanted to buy a home in China, in order to give Liu a sense of security. He said that he wanted to send $5 million to Liu for her to pick up in person in Beijing. However, there were some complications with the package. First, a person claimed to be a United Nations staff member in charge of deliveries asked Liu for a processing fee. Then, another person claiming to be the boss of a delivery company asked her to a payment to help get the package through customs. After that, a third person claiming to be a courier asked for a payment as well. In all Liu spent over 400,000 Yuan on these fees.

Shaoxing police said that Liu had been scammed by a group of foreign swindlers. The same group had run the scam on ten women. Most of the women, however, did not go the police after being swindled.

Police soon busted the foreign gang. It was the first case in Zhejiang province of a foreign gang using online dating sites to scam women.

Love at First Chat

Online, Jesse had claimed to be a 40 year old retired senior military official from the United States. Jesse said that he was looking for a sincere woman to marry him. Liu thought that he was a real gentlemen. She was deeply moved when he read poetry to her in English. Jesse told her, “You are a very elegant woman, you must have received a good education.”

Jesse send Liu pictures of her passport and retired military ID. He said that he hoped to start a family in China. Soon, the two began a romantic relationship. Jesse referred to her as “my wife,” and Liu felt that she was following in love with him.

Jesse soon told Liu that he would purchase a home in China in order to make her feel secure. Liu was really touch, and was happy to have found such a responsible man.

Jesse told her that he planned to deliver a $5 million parcel to China. A few days later, he messaged her on QQ and said that he had not returned to China. He asked her if she could possibly receive the delivery for him. “I was happy that he had confidence in me,” said Liu.

Impossible Fees

Soon, a man arrived were Liu was staying in Shaoxing claiming to be UN personnel. He said that Liu needed to pay a fee of $59,730 Yuan to get the package through security.

Jesse told Liu that the package had to be picked up in Beijing, and asked if she would go to Beijing to receive it for him.

When Liu arrived in Beijing, she was contacted by a “delivery company boss,” and asked her to pay more than 60,000 Yuan as a customs clearance fee.

Liu started to feel impatient. Soon, a man claiming to be a translator from the delivery company contacted her. He said it seemed like there was an issue with the U.S. dollars in the package. The translator, a black foreign man, brought the package to Liu. He opened to package and pulled out the U.S. dollars.

Liu immediately called Jesse and said that she had received the money. The foreign translator then asked her for a 33,770 Yuan transfer fee in order to deposit the money. The translator wrapped the money back up.

The translator also told Liu that the package of dollars had already been handled, and that the company needed to buy a special chemical solution to restore it. The chemical treatment would cost 400,000 Yuan.

Liu felt that this did not sound right, and reported the matter to the police. Altogether, she had given up more than 400,000 Yuan.

Scammers Arrested

Police investigators saw that the scam was orchestrated by four black foreign men. The four men had already been arrested.

One of the man was recently sentenced to four months in prison, fined, and deported, by a local Shaoxing court.

Shaoxing police said that the gang had scammed 10 women from Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Jiangsu, and other places. The victims were scammed out of large sums of money, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Yuan. However, most of the victims did not contact police after the incident.

“The women who were deceived were mainly well education. They have felt like calling the police would ruin their image. We recommend that scam victims call the police as soon as possible,” said an officer in Shaoxing.

Source: Wenxue City

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Keywords: China scam China dating site scam

6 Comments

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RandomGuy

This happens because Chinese love is not true love. To many Chinese women out here, the promise of material or financial gains is enough to pretend to love a man, to many Chinese men physical attraction seems enough to marry a woman while there are other factors (personality, intelligence, common interests, etc...) to take into consideration. True love can't happen online and certainly not after one of two chats, it takes time to build. True love isn't based on the possible gains for each party but selflessness and sharing. Most Chinese don't know the meaning of true love and that is why they are terribly unhappy with their marriage.

Jan 21, 2016 09:57 Report Abuse

mrdoug90

Ha the oldest scam , the Nigerian Scam being used in China , fantastic , and since they are shielded from the world (Internet) no clue that this has been going on since the invention of the Internet and email. Greed getting in the way of some common sense thinking and thought

Jan 18, 2016 08:53 Report Abuse

kuntmans

Bloody foreign scam artists. China has enough local scam artists without foreigners getting in on the scamming.

Jan 17, 2016 20:23 Report Abuse

golf79

+1

Jan 15, 2016 08:33 Report Abuse

Englteachted

Being greedy and dumb does not make you the victim of a scammer. You were simply the victim of your own greed and stupidity. Honestly, taking advantage of dumb, greedy people should not be illegal. Their intent was to try and steal the 'valuable package'. Stealing from a thief is a non-matter.

Jan 14, 2016 20:34 Report Abuse