Livestreaming website busted for defrauding lovesick men
One of the online hosts caught in the livestreaming case.
A total of 173 people have been arrested for running a streaming website that allegedly defrauded men in love, Shanghai police said on Thursday.
The suspects hooked up on the Internet with men, lured them into feeling they were in love with attractive women, and then made them spend big on the streaming website for which the women worked.
Police in Yangpu District started their investigation into the fraud in April this year after they received clues.
The victims didn't realize they had been defrauded until they spent all they had and were blacklisted by their imaginary girlfriends, police said.
Most of the time they spent on the website they were chatting not with the women, but with other fraudsters, police added.
It took only six to seven days for the suspects to hook a victim and finally dump him, police said. More than 2,000 victims have been identified from different parts of the country.
Among the suspects caught, 25 were women who showed up in the livestreaming shows.
