Scammers target Chinese lonely hearts with cheap sweet talk which is also very fake
- Thousands of audio messages featuring sweet-voiced young women are being used to fleece online victims
- They think they are chatting with a pretty girl, only to discover a man with bad intentions
Lonely men on the internet in China are being fleeced by scammers hiding behind tailor-made packages aimed at convincing the victims that they are chatting to sweet-voiced, pretty girls in need of a little financial help.
Internet scams targeting lonely hearts are nothing new, but a sophisticated black market has emerged to make trapping the unwary an easier, and more lucrative, affair.
One person familiar with the new industry told The Beijing News that recorded audio messages were being used to counter growing awareness of potential fraud on the internet.
“People’s anti-fraud awareness is rising, but they are less concerned about voice messages sent on social media because these messages cannot be reposted to other users,” he said. “People don’t know that, while what you hear is a female voice, the person chatting with you on the internet might be a vulgar man.”
According to The Beijing News, packages of fake social media accounts, pictures and audio messages are available for as little as 20 yuan (US$3).
One such package, bought at an online store in China, included 1,500 audio messages featuring female voices, many of them seductively asking for “red packets” – a traditional way of giving money which has become synonymous with remitting money over the internet on social media app WeChat.