Chinese police detain 42 suspects over fake prostitutes scam on WeChat
- Suspects rounded up on Hainan Island and taken to Wenzhou, Zhejiang where they are being held for questioning
- They are accused of creating profiles for young women sex workers to dupe ‘clients’ from across China, asking them to pay money before they could meet
Police in eastern China have detained more than 40 suspects accused of posing as prostitutes online, using fake profiles to fraudulently obtain money.
Officers allege the suspects – many of them men – set up the profiles on social network WeChat to swindle money from more than 4,000 people across the country, Wenzhou Evening News reported.
The 42 suspects were taken to Wenzhou, Zhejiang province – where more than 100 people say they were scammed – on a charter flight from Hainan Island on Thursday, according to the report.
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They are accused of creating fake profiles for young women prostitutes, using graphic images and voice messages to dupe “clients” from all over China, and asking them to pay money before they could meet.
Several people reported their cases to police, saying they had paid money to WeChat accounts before they realised they had been scammed, according to the report.
Wenzhou police said more than 150 mobile phones and 300 bank cards had been confiscated as a result of the subsequent investigation, and over 800,000 yuan (US$120,000) had been frozen. The suspects have yet to be charged and are being held in custody for questioning.
A police spokesman also reminded the public that prostitution is illegal in China. Engaging in sex work is a criminal offence, while police can also detain someone who pays for prostitution for up to two weeks.
Meanwhile in August, 57 members of an online romance fraud ring, many of them from the same family, were jailed by a court in eastern China.
