China woman scams blind date out of US$65,000 by hiring actors to pose as family and herself
Authorities say man was victim of scam orchestrated by unemployed married woman with a child
A married Chinese woman was detained after hiring actors to impersonate her parents and herself in an elaborate scheme to defraud her blind date.
The police disclosed to the Chinese media outlet Jimu News that a man named Xin, from central China’s Hubei province, met a woman who identified herself as Xiaoyu. She saw his contact information in a wedding planning advertisement and reached out to him in August 2022.
Xiaoyu, hailing from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, professed her love to Xin just one month after their initial online meeting. As they began planning their marriage last year, she informed Xin that he needed to pay a bride price of 188,000 yuan (US$26,000) to her family, as per local customs.
In January last year, Xin brought gifts worth 10,000 yuan to her home to meet her parents, but she claimed to be ill and did not attend.
Over the following year, she repeatedly solicited money from him for her mother’s surgery and gifts for her sister, while consistently denying his requests to meet, citing that it was “inconvenient”.
To maintain the illusion, she sent him photos and spoke to him over the phone, which helped assuage his growing suspicions. Xin reported that he transferred over 220,000 yuan to Xiaoyu throughout the previous year.
