A MAN and his three relatives have been arrested by Shenzhen police for allegedly cheating people out of money on a dating website, Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

    Last November, a woman who works at a printing company in Longgang District, met a man claiming to be surnamed Zhang on jiayuan.com, a Match.com-like dating website.

    Zhang claimed to be doing business in Guangzhou and established a romantic relationship with her a week later.

    On Dec. 7 last year, Zhang told the woman, surnamed Miao, that he had opened a new store in Guangzhou and asked Miao to buy some flower baskets for a celebration. Miao agreed and immediately transferred 3,300 yuan (US$533) to the flower shop, as Zhang had told her.

    The next day, Zhang told Miao that he had been in a car accident on his way to Shenzhen to see Miao, and asked her to transfer another 3,700 yuan to pay for his medical treatment. The woman did so, but couldn’t reach Zhang later and reported the matter to Longgang police.

    A police investigation found out that the man wasn’t actually surnamed Zhang and suspected that there was a group behind the scam. On March 18, police arrested four suspects, including Zhang, in Yingde, Guangdong Province.

    Zhang’s real surname is Zeng. The other three suspects were Zeng’s wife, his younger sister-in-law and the sister’s husband.

    Zeng admitted to the scam and said he owed a lot of money from gambling. He had conspired with the other three to defraud people on dating websites.

    The case is under further investigation.

    (Luo Songsong)