Tomb shark charged with grave crimes

A man who claimed to be a tomb salesman and swindled 11 people, out of more than 700,000 yuan (US$102,000), has been charged with fraud, Qingpu District People’s Procuratorate said yesterday.

The man, Song, has visited Macau frequently since 2016 for gambling and owes a large amount of money to money lenders, prosecutors said.

One of the victims, Zhou, who lives in Qingpu, made a report to police several months ago.

He said that he met a person who claimed to be a salesman from a cemetery in March.

Zhou was considering buying a tomb and went to the cemetery for a look.

Song showed Zhou a piece of cement ground and told him that some new tombs would be built in the area.

Song then offered a “discount” and took 110,000 yuan from Zhou.

It later became clear that Song was neither a tomb salesman nor could he return Zhou’s money. Zhou contacted the cemetery and was told that Song did not work for them and there was no plan to build any tombs in the area in question.

Zhou went to the police, who found Song had used the same trick to cheat over 700,000 yuan from 11 victims since July, 2016.