Chinese man using make-up and women’s clothing tricks man into 6-month ‘relationship’ and steals US$8,700
- On their first date in person, the victim asked the scammer why ‘she’ had an Adam’s apple but believed the claim it was from surgery in ‘her’ youth
- The victim’s parents bought the ruse as well due to the scammer’s convincing make-up and clothing
A man who posed as a woman online and in the flesh and dated another man for six months before defrauding him of more than 58,000 yuan (US$8,700) has been given a two-year suspended sentence by a court in China.
Two years ago, a man, surnamed Gao, pretended to be a woman in an online catfish scam and asked people online to find “her” a match. One individual introduced the scammer to a single male relative, surnamed Zhang, from Jiangsu province, in eastern China.
The pair began what Zhang thought was an online relationship primarily through WeChat messaging.
While pretending to be a woman, Gao convinced Zhang to lend him 58,400 yuan for a variety of fabricated reasons such as paying social security, mortgage payments, and for a grandmother’s hospital stay during their supposed relationship.
The couple only met twice in person during their six-month “relationship”, including when Zhang took Gao as his “girlfriend” to meet his parents.
When they first met in person, Zhang noticed something odd and asked why Gao had an Adam’s apple.