Social media using swindler ring busted in Changsha
Staff Reporter
2015-02-23
One of the suspects at the local police office, Changsha, Jan. 27. (Photo/CFP)
As social media having become an integral part of Chinese society, they have also often become a tool for swindlers, such as with a recent case in Hunan province's Changsha city where some males were forced to pay exorbitant bills for meals with women they met through social media, according to voc.com.cn, a news website in Changsha.
Wang Lei (pseudonym), one of those targeted, told the website that he got acquainted with a woman on social media who proposed to dine at a local restaurant in their first date. After the dinner was over, he went to the counter to pay the bill but was astonished by the 1,368 yuan (US$220) bill. Aware that it may be a set-up, he planned to refsue paying until he saw some stout male staffers at the restaurant.
The news website subsequently carried out an investigative report which appears to confirm the existence of a swindling ring on social media, using the suspicious restaurant as a front.
Surveillance of the restaurant by voc.com.cn reporters found that in a short span of four hours, eight males in the company of women whom they met through social media went into the restaurant and paid exorbitant bills mostly over 1,000 yuan (US$161).
Upon seeing the report online, local police raided the restaurant and detained four suspects, including three women and one ringleader.
