Man 'poses as policeman' to defraud girlfriend

A man has been detained for defrauding his girlfriend after stealing from her.

Shanghai police said on Thursday that the suspect, surnamed Gong, had fooled his girlfriend via a WeChat account purporting to have been set up by a police officer.

The woman, surnamed Lu, initially reported to police officers at Xiayang police station in Qingpu District that she had lost over 4,000 yuan (US$615) in her Alipay account last May. She was accompanied to the station by her boyfriend.

Police didn’t start to investigate that loss because she had appeared “too confused” about the missing money.

Subsequently Gong introduced her, via social media, to “a police officer surnamed Zhang." 

Lu added “Officer Zhang” to her WeChat account and offered him her ID card, debit card and SIM card, via Gong, last July “to assist investigation,” police said.

Lu was also asked to open two new bank accounts and apply for a credit card in September and October, and then gave the bank cards to Gong for him to pass on to “Officer Zhang.”

Lu didn’t get her ID card and bank cards back till the end of November, when she discovered that over 30,000 yuan in her bank account was missing.

Lu said she had never seen “Officer Zhang” in person, but her boyfriend, had allegedly met him and had described what the officer looked like.

On December 3, Lu reported that she had lost over 30,000 yuan to a fake police officer to officers at Xianghuaqiao police station in Qingpu after she realized “Officer Zhang” was a fake policeman. Again, she was accompanied by Gong.

In investigating this case, police found that Gong had never met any “Officer Zhang” at the venue and time he claimed to have done so, and suspected that Gong was lying.

Gong, who heard from his girlfriend that the police were making headway into the case, surrendered to the police in late December.

He allegedly confessed that he first stolen money from his girlfriend’s Alipay account and then for fear of being caught by the police created a WeChat account to pose as “Officer Zhang.”

Gong said he needed money to send home to his parents but he had no savings after six years of working as a migrant worker.