Chinese men tricked out of US$119,000 by crime gang’s sob story about woman forced into marriage; 30 detained

Social media users duped after falling for tale of girl having to sell traditional Chinese medicine to help pay back bride price

Police say about 300 men, most aged 30 to 50, were fooled into parting with their cash

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A criminal gang in east China concocted a story about a woman being forced into marriage to cheat men out of their money. Photo: Sina.com.cn

Published: 2:24pm, 28 Mar 2019Updated: 10:24pm, 28 Mar 2019

Thirty members of a criminal gang have been detained in east China for allegedly fleecing sympathetic social media users who thought they were helping a woman escape a forced marriage.

The scam started late last year with the woman adding men on WeChat – China’s most popular social media app – and then telling them her family had accepted a bride price for her to marry four brothers, none of whom she loved, the Xinmin Evening News reported on Thursday.

She said she ran away but felt obliged to pay back the money and the only way she could do so was by selling cordyceps – a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine – online. Her posts were accompanied by images of a young woman holding out a handful of the traditional Chinese medicine and a request for people to buy it, the report said.

In the weeks that followed about 300 men, most aged between 30 and 50, agreed to help, with many of them foregoing the actual product and instead just making a donation to the woman’s cause. Others paid more than 100 yuan (US$15) for a single piece of cordyceps that had a retail value of just 20 yuan.

The victims of the scam were targeted on WeChat, China’s most popular social media app. Photo: Sina.com.cn

Some of the victims handed over tens of thousands of yuan, according to police in Shanghai’s Changning district, who launched an investigation in January after being alerted to the case, the report said.