Fact is stranger than fiction. No one could make up the convoluted tale of an elder man who over the course of several years, succeeded in defrauding one lady out of ¥2.73 million. That the man fooled her 179 times now has many asking, “Was she in love?”.
The story came to light on 2 June. A man in Anhui Province who was then 63 met a landlady back in 2014. Over the next 5 years, the man, named Zhang Bo, would conjure up any manner of stories in his deceit, everything from Nanjing real estate deals gone wrong to car accidents in Europe and even suicide.
Having allegedly originally opened a hotel in Huainan (淮南) in Anhui, Zhang came to Bengbu, also in Anhui, in 2014, planning another hotel. One day, he saw a real estate advertisement on a roadside telegraph pole. In responding to the ad, he had already lured in the landlady, surnamed Ding.
Zhang claimed to be the top dog of a seafood business, reported The World Journal. Later, rather than renting one of Ding’s properties, Zhang made friends with her, snaring her in with his crooked plot.
It all started with a loan of just ¥8,000. And where could be the harm in that?
Things got going innocently enough, or so they seemed, with Zhang explaining to Ding that his business was having difficulty making ends meet. He asked Ding to lend him ¥8,000 to tide him over. And so she did; after all, her new friend needed help.
With the friendship now blossoming, Zhang pushed the boat out further each time. Claiming to have sold a real estate business in Hainan (海南), together with several properties in Nanjing, Zhang cited financial problems stemming from the sales.
Ding stepped in. After all, she was in the business herself.
Then Zhang’s son was killed in a car crash in Germany. He was survived only by Zhang’s grand daughter. How could Ding possibly not want to help?
Later, Zhang made up the story that his grand daughter, who was pregnant, had hanged herself. Zhang’s son had also left a lot of debt behind him. Once again, Ding coughed up.
Fast forward to 2019, some 179 lies later, when Ding received a mysterious phone call. The women on the other end, surnamed Li, claimed to be Zhang’s girlfriend. They had been living together in Huainan and had never even been to Hainan.
Zhang had used the similarity in the two place names to his advantage.
In his recent confession, Zhang revealed that only a small part of Ding’s fortune had been used for living expenses. The rest had been blown on the stock market and gambling.
