'Menders of broken hearts' accused of fraud

Ti Gong

Sixty-nine suspects were caught for allegedly defrauding people with broken hearts, Shanghai police said today.

Police in Jinshan District began their investigation in May after a man surnamed Niu reported his case.

Niu told the police he paid 3,280 yuan (US$508) to a consultation company in July of last year for its service to make his ex-girlfriend come back to him. The woman had blocked him from all means of communication, he said.

In the meantime, he was told by the consultant who served him that the woman had already seen someone new, and asked for more money because more effort was required. He was then told the woman was moved and was thinking about getting back with him. Consequently, he was asked again to pay more so the consultant could talk to the woman's new boyfriend and convince him to give her up, police said.

By April, Niu had paid about 34,000 yuan to the company, but his ex never contacted him and the company wouldn't explain its failure to help him – which was when he realized the whole thing may have been fraudulent.

Through their investigation, police found the company was one of a few similar companies operated from Shandong Province that provided suspicious services.

In the company's Internet ads, it claimed its teams were made up of qualified psychological consultants, when in reality none of its employees were, police said.

The consultants took the contact information of the targeted people from their clients, but never contacted those people. They made up stories so their clients would continue paying more money, according to police.

The suspects, most of whom are women, were caught apprehended at five different locations in Shandong last month.

So far, police have tracked down more than 500 victims of the service from different parts of the country – most of them men between 20 and 30 years old.

In total, they paid more than 7 million yuan for the service, and the largest loss in a single case was 120,000 yuan, police said.