A WOMAN surnamed Qiu thought she had found a boyfriend through Youyuan.com in March. But instead of finding love, Qiu became one of over 400 people in Shenzhen who have been cheated out of money through relationship websites this year, Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

    Qiu’s story is typical of the fraud that goes on through relationship sites in Shenzhen. Qiu was excited to take up her new boyfriend on his offer of traveling abroad.

    The man said he had an acquaintance that worked at the city’s exit and entry department and could help Qiu apply for a passport and visa in a short period of time. The man gave Qiu a phone number and told her to call.

    The man Qiu spoke to asked to control Qiu’s computer remotely to transfer a “guarantee” fee. When Qiu finished the transfer process, the boyfriend she had never met in person disappeared.

    The relationship sites involved in the cases include Youyuan.com, Jiayuan.com, Baihe.com and other well-known sites. The amount of money scammed exceeds 6 million yuan (US$936,600).

    Like Qiu, a woman surnamed Chen lost nearly 30,000 yuan to a man on another relationship site. The man, known as Lin Feng, asked Chen to buy him a “fortune tree” that was priced at 16,000 yuan to celebrate his new business.

    When the man got the money, he asked Chen to buy another Buddha statute for 13,400 yuan. After that, the man vanished, leaving nothing but a dead phone number.

    “We found that most victims were divorced middle-aged men and women who had unsuccessful marriages or relationships before,” said Lu Fuzhi, an officer with Shenzhen’s anti-fraud center.

    The scammers use the victims’ eagerness to find a new partner. Pretending to be successful and rich, the scammers register different accounts on the sites and post fake personal information to lure their targets.

    The scammers speak to victims for weeks or even months via messages and phone calls, but usually refuse to meet in person. In order to gain trust, some scammers work in groups with people playing different roles like the parents, siblings or children.

    The anti-fraud center talked to people in charge of Jiayuan.com, Baihe.com and Youyuan.com over the weekend regarding the fraud cases and are requiring the companies to strengthen the verification process of registered members and delete fake information.

    The three sites have submitted commitment letters to the center, but the center said they will continue to investigate other cases.

    “If we find similar cases again, we will hand them over to the public security bureaus,” said Lu. (Zhang Qian)