Woman swindled buyers over virus protection

A woman was jailed for eight years by Hongkou District People's Court on Tuesday for swindling 12 people out of more than 440,000 yuan (US$62,111) by offering to sell medical supplies such as masks and temperature sensors.

Prosecutors said the woman, Shu, who had no recourse to medical supplies, took advantage of the urgent need for protective gear and falsely claimed on WeChat that she had lots of products for sale.

She got more than 440,000 yuan from 12 buyers but no goods were delivered.

When two buyers who had paid over 30,000 yuan realised they’d been tricked, they alerted police who traced more victims. 

Shu was caught by police at a shopping mall in Yangpu District on February 16 and later confessed to the crime.

One of the victims had been entrusted by an epidemic prevention and control headquarters in another province to purchase masks for medical workers at the front line of the virus fight.

He said that Shu had told him the mask were from Myanmar and could be picked up at a customs office on the border between China and Myanmar in Yunnan Province.

However, after driving for many hours, the man and his colleague found no trace of a customs office.

Shanghai police called him the next day to tell him of the fraud. He had been swindled out of 100,000 yuan by Shu.