A MAN surnamed Li who fabricated and released false information to mislead homebuyers and disrupt market order has been detained.

On Aug. 16, Li, 24, fabricated a story and released it through the public WeChat account, Shenzhen Housing Market and Life, after seeing some photos and reading some information about the sale of properties developed by China Resources Properties Development Co. in Nanshan District.

In the untrue story, Li claimed that the apartments offered by China Resources Properties Development Co. had sold out within three hours and in Shenzhen, one apartment cost 11 million yuan (US$1.65 million).

The story, which included some photos showing homebuyers lined up “for kilometers” and crowding to get a chance to buy an apartment, was widely circulated online and misled the public.

Li was caught in an apartment in Buji Subdistrict in Longgang District on Aug. 18. An investigation showed that Li had registered and independently operated the WeChat account.

The investigation also revealed that China Resources Properties Development Co. had been approved to sell their apartments, 350 in total, starting Aug. 10. On the first day of the sales, 411 people visited the sales center and 263 apartments were sold. There were no long lines of more than 2,000 people or crowding on that day.

The true situation was quite different from the story and photos provided by Li on his public account.

Shenzhen Internet information office required that Tencent clear the story from circulation on its WeChat platform. On Tuesday, Tencent closed Li’s WeChat account based on the investigation reports of the police and housing authorities. (Han Ximin)