A TOTAL of 104 suspects of a fraud ring were taken by the Longhua police for investigation after they had allegedly swindled online investors out of over 6 million yuan (US$869,565), the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Monday.

    One of the victims, surnamed Lu, was used to buying investment products online. He received a call from a woman, who recommended silver and crude oil investment products to him, in November 2013. The woman won Lu’s trust, but she turned down Lu’s invitations for a face-to-face conversation every time.

    After Lu lost nearly 96,000 yuan on two online investment platforms recommended by the woman between 2014 and 2016, the woman stopped answering his calls. Lu called the police in June last year after he realized that he had been fooled by scammers.

    A police task force raided the fraud ring’s office in Longhua District on Feb. 16. The fraud ring was operating as a company in Minzhi Subdistrict, and the company’s legal representative was surnamed Zhou.

    After a 10-hour on-site search, the police officers took 104 suspects back for investigation and froze over 6 million yuan in 24 bank accounts.

    According to the police, the company’s employees were divided into teams to search and select potential victims on dating websites. Then they pretended to be rich good-looking men and women by using others’ photos on WeChat or other instant messaging apps. They spent at least a month winning the trust of their victims before recommending online investment products to the victims.

    “The so-called traders and analysts were all fake. They let the victims make a profit in the beginning to lure them into the trap,” said a police officer with the task force. He said that the company’s employees would convince victims to buy their investment products because they seemed rich, but their wages came from victims’ investments.

    According to the police, 28 suspects, including Zhou, were held under criminal detention. The investigation of the case continues.

    The police said that there were only four legal futures trading centers approved by authorities in China, including China Financial Futures Exchange, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, Dalian Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.

    (Zhang Yang)