Woman held for online romance fraud against other women
A woman has been detained for allegedly defrauding seven women of about 870,000 yuan (US$130,000) through online romance frauds, police said on Monday.
Police in Minhang District said they started to investigate the case after a woman surnamed Zhao, in her 30s, reported on February 18 that she lost contact with her “boyfriend” who borrowed over 20,000 yuan from her in the past four months.
Zhao said she fell in love with the “man” she met on a dating website at the end of last year, and that he claimed he was a high-level army official working in the south of the country.
Zhao had previously chatted with him on the phone, police said.
The “boyfriend” asked to borrow money from her using various excuses including the death of his mother and the death anniversary of his ex-girlfriend, Zhao told police.
Zhao said the “boyfriend” had introduced her to six other people including his relatives and colleagues, but through investigation, police found that all of them were fabricated by the suspect.
A 46-year-old woman, surnamed Huang, was caught on Chongming Island last Thursday.
Police said Huang has been performing the fraud on the Internet and targeting women from 30 to 35 years old since 2016, and one of the victims was in a “relationship” with her for about three years.
Huang used software to change her voice when talking on the phone with victims, police said.