A textbook online-dating scam has recently resulted in a young Nanjing man being ¥350,000 out of pocket, after the “girl” he met online turned out to be a man who had succeeded in convincing him to repeatedly transfer money in the name of loans.
On 26 September last year, Xiao Li, a young man living in Nanjing, met someone in an online forum, one calling them self, “Jiang Yaowang”. After the two added each other on WeChat, Jiang sent Li a series of selfies. The two chatted speculatively, and over time, agreed that they were in a relationship.
Somewhat naively, Li (21) did not expect that a big net was spreading out to entrap him at this time.
Soon after deciding upon their union, his “girlfriend”, now going by the nickname, Yao Yao, asked Li if “she” could borrow some money, promising to meet him later. Li didn’t think too much of it and so agreed, transferring the requested amount to “her”.
What followed was a series of virtually unending requests for more borrowing. At one point, Yao Yao even sent Li a copy of her supposed Chinese ID card. Watching his “girlfriend’s” anxiety, Li felt helpless and distressed. After all, he had fallen in love.
During this time, Li had also asked that the two of them have a video voice call, but each time Yao Yao refused, with excuses such as, “Something’s happening at home” and, “No time, I’m in the hospital”.
Top Online-Dating Lines Used in Order to Scam More Loans
Over the course of 3 months, Li transferred in excess of ¥350,000 to Yao Yao, through no less than 42 transactions. Of the 17,000 conversations between the two, 60 percent comprised Yao Yao requesting money for various reasons.
- “My father is in hospital and in urgent need of money for life-saving, heart-bypass surgery” (父亲住院，急需救命钱做心脏搭桥手术)
- “Money needed for online car-hailing deposit” (跑网约车赚钱需要押金)
- “Online car-hailing ride has had an accident” (租网约车出车祸)
- “Black market debt collectors are looking for an online loan repayment” (网贷遭遇黑社会讨债)
- “[I] will come to your city as soon as to marry you” (馬上就到你的城市嫁給你)
- “[I] will devote my life to thanking you” (會以身相許來感謝你)
Ultimately, Li realised that he owed too much money and began to urge Yao Yao to pay him back. Yao Yao replied that “her mother” would help repay the debt; soon the “mother” was also asking Li for loans.
With the maturity of his online loan imminent and being overdue on his credit card repayments, Li could go on no longer and reported the case to the police.
It therefore came to pass that on 18 January, Li asked Yao Yao to meet and talk in a hotel in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, having told the police in advance. However, when Li arrived at the appointed place, he was met by a young man, who claimed to be a rental agent for an online car booking firm, reported The Paper on 22 February.
The police brought the man back to the station for questioning and found him to be surnamed Jiang (31) from Hangzhou, and that he was also actually Jiang Yaowang, Li’s “girlfriend” on WeChat. Jiang went on to admit that he had used photographs of beautiful women on the internet and that he had pretended to be Yao Yao, her mother and others, in order to cheat Li.
At present, the suspect has been detained by Hangzhou Xiaoshan District police, with the case under further investigation.