Zhang Yang, Angelina Xu

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    AN Indian business owner in Shenzhen has been allegedly swindled out of 180,000 yuan (US$27,138) by a private license-plate dealer, five years after his company was cheated out of more than US$53,000.

    The victim, who declined to be named, was trying to purchase a cross-border license plate from a man — who called himself a private dealer — he had found online last year, according to Liu, his assistant and spokesperson.

    Liu said that the victim’s two trading companies — one based in Shenzhen and the other in Hong Kong — mainly engage in wholesaling and exporting electronic products from China. She said that the victim had gotten in touch with the suspect in January last year, and the two had met once at the victim’s company in Nanshan District.

    The victim is in his mid-40s and has lived in Shenzhen for over a decade. According to Liu, he was on a business trip and could not be reached when Shenzhen Daily reporters tried to contact him.

    According to a document issued by the Zhaoshang Police Station in Nanshan District, the case was reported on June 4 and was categorized as a fraud investigation.

    A bank transfer confirmation provided by Liu shows that two transfers totaling 80,000 yuan were made to an account under the name of the suspect, surnamed Zeng, from the victim’s account on Aug. 13, 2015.

    On Oct. 19, two more payments — totaling 100,000 yuan — were transferred to the same account from the victim, according to bank records. Beginning this January, calls and WeChat messages to the suspect went unanswered.

    Liu said that since the company reported the case two months ago, “no one from the police department has gotten back to us regarding the progress of the case.”

    Wang Hang, the police officer who was responsible for handling the case, refused to disclose further details about the case to the Shenzhen Daily on the grounds that the investigation was still ongoing. He said that the case was controversial, because it might not be deemed a scam if the suspect hadn’t intended to defraud the victim before the transaction was made.

    “For instance, if a person borrows money from someone and he couldn’t repay the money due to a personal financial situation, he would not be convicted of fraud,” Wang said.

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    This is not the first time that the victim has reported being scammed. Another incident happened in 2011, when a man allegedly used a supplier’s email address to request a payment of US$53,552.82 from the victim’s company, according to Liu.

    Police documents show that the suspect is an unidentified foreign national using a South African passport, and his bank account has been frozen since the investigation began in 2011. The suspect had tried to withdrew money from the account but failed. A letter issued by the South African Embassy in Beijing in November 2013 confirmed that the suspect’s passport was fraudulent.

    Liu said that the case had remained unsolved for five years, and she hoped there would be a way for them to get the money back from the suspect’s frozen bank account.

    Song Fuxin, managing partner and attorney at ETR Law Firm in Guangzhou, said that the victim could demand that the police issue a letter to the bank, requesting the bank to transfer the money back to the victim’s account. He said that the victim could also file a civil lawsuit against the suspect to reclaim the money.

    This case was originally submitted on April 22, 2011, and has since been transferred to the Huafu Police Station in Futian District. A police officer at the station responded that they were still working on the case and would update the victim when new evidence is discovered.