A man has admitted to fraud after a victim of an online dating scam handed over thousands of yuan to a boyfriend she had never met, according to a news website.

The woman, identified only by her surname Chen, from Yancheng city in northeastern Jiangsu province, met her online boyfriend in March 2014 via a popular dating website, reported the Modern Express.

Although she never met the man in person, Chen was scammed into lending him 380,000 yuan (US$60,500) over the course of four years.

Going by the name of Zhou Weichen, the man claimed to be a music editor at CCTV, China’s main state-owned television broadcaster. He also claimed to own a property in Beijing, and that his father worked for Chinese oil and gas company PetroChina. Throughout the time they spoke, he asked Chen to lend him varying amounts of money.

In January, after four years of attempting to meet up, Chen reported the fraud. The following month, local police from Funing county began investigations that led them to a 30-year-old male surnamed Yang in Jilin city, northeastern China – more than 1,500km north of Yancheng and 1,000km northeast of Beijing. Yang admitted to fraud in court.

“Four years ago, Yang registered a fake name on a dating website, and later met the victim, Ms Chen,” the police were quoted as saying. “The two added each other on [Chinese instant messaging service] QQ and exchanged information.”