POLICE in China have arrested two African men and issued an international arrest warrant for another after they allegedly swindled a Chinese man out of nearly 2.18 million yuan (US$357,000).

    The fraud came to light after a Zhumadian native, surnamed Xiao, in Henan Province, filed a report with the police Sept. 18, the local Dahe Daily reported Wednesday.

    One of the men, with the user- name “Tropple,” befriended Xiao on a chat forum in August. Tropple claimed to be an American woman serving with the U. N. peacekeeping forces in Congo.

    Two other men were also part of the scam. The trio pretended to be women on chat forums in order to target men, police said. The two men who helped Tropple by exchanging the money into a different currency in China are now in police custody, the paper reported.

    The man sent fake photos to Xiao, who was convinced he was actually talking to an American woman. Xiao became smitten.

    During one of their chats, Tropple convinced Xiao that an orphan in a refugee camp whose father had died had left her with US$4.5 million in a bag, and that if the bag could be sent to China, they could share the money.

    Xiao agreed to the deal and was told to pay for the transportation fees up front. He remitted US$101,717.4 into Tropple’s bank account 11 times. He was then told that the bag had arrived in Guangdong and that he could collect the money after transferring nearly 1.5 million yuan into two bank accounts.

    Xiao transferred the money, only realizing he had been cheated once Tropple stopped contacting him afterwards. He reported the matter to the police. Bank records showed that the money had been withdrawn by two foreign men in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, and in Shenzhen.

    On Oct. 28, police caught the two men in Shenyang. Their passports turned out to be fake as well.(SD-Agencies)