Too early to say if Changsha man’s 17 girlfriends were victims of scam, police say

It is too early to tell if a man who had 17 girlfriends visit him in hospital after a car crash was involved in scam, mainland media quoted police as saying.

It was only when the women arrived at the hospital in Changsha after the accident that they realised the extent of his romantic interests.

Xiao Li, 21, set up a WeChat group for the women to share details about dating the man, surnamed Yuan. Some had gone out with him for years – in one case for a decade. Others had just started. And one even had a baby with him, the Xiaoxiang Morning News reported on Friday.

According to the women, he seemed to use the same ruse to lure them to fall in love with him before he started borrowing money from them. One woman who said she was “married” to him for seven years had lent him 250,000 yuan (HK$317,000).

The news attracted thousands of comments on China’s largest social media network, Sina Weibo. Many said they were shocked that so many women could be so naive.

On Monday, the website Changsha.cn reported that Yuan kept code names for each of his girlfriends, such as “project manager”, “provincial official”, and “financial officer”. Most of the women are aged between 20 and 40. Many are from Changsha although a few are from Guangzhou.