Romancescam a la China

[IceFM]

..... TCH; 13.02.2024, 02:30pm from Julia Kasparova/UKR

The poor man pretended to be a businessman and cheated 40 women out of millions: what did he come up with?

Now he will be behind bars.

A man from a poor rural family in China who posed as a wealthy businessman to rent luxury cars was sentenced to 13 years in prison after defrauding 40 women out of a total of two million yuan ($280,000).
about it . writes SCMP
The scam was uncovered after a man surnamed Gu was beaten in the southwestern province of Sichuan in February last year by a man who accused him of having an affair with his wife, Red Star News reported.
Police discovered that the woman had transferred a large amount of money to Gu's bank account. Several other women also reported to police that he had cheated them out of money.
Investigators found that Gu falsified his identity, dated multiple women at the same time, used sophisticated "time management" skills and tricked the women into lending him money.

At least 40 women are believed to have fallen for the scam, and the total sum of the case was 2 million yuan, police in Sichuan province said.
Gu, 33, was born in a small village in the eastern province of Jiangsu and dropped out of primary school in the second grade. He later married but divorced years ago, the report said.
His elaborate scam involved posing as the head of a construction company, renting luxury cars with borrowed money, obtaining fake title certificates and even hiring a chauffeur to drive him around town.
This setup has attracted many single women in their 20s to 40s from dating sites. He asked them to loan him money, claiming his non-existent company was having temporary cash flow problems or that he had just made an investment.

The women were convinced that he was rich because he led an extravagant lifestyle that he financed with other women's money.
In 2022, Gu left Jiangsu after some of his girlfriends became suspicious of him when he did not return their money.
He moved to the southwestern province of Sichuan, where he told people he was the head of a construction company in Jiangsu and owned several properties and cars. He said he was divorced and hoped to find a wife.
To attract women, Gu promised to buy them houses and cars. He also offered to meet her parents to prove he was sincere in his relationship.
In January, the Tongjiang District Court of Sichuan Province sentenced Gu to 13 years in prison and fined him 200,000 yuan ($28,000) for fraud.