LONGHUA police recently arrested six suspects involved in an Internet scam, in which a man was swindled out of 11,000 yuan (US$1,656), but succeeded in inciting defection within the fraud ring, sznews.com reported Monday.

A few months ago, a girl who called herself Jingjing befriended the victim, surnamed Lin, on WeChat. Jingjing was like an intimate friend and was very considerate. “One day, she said she was in love and would go back to her hometown in Wuyishan City, Fujian Province. She sent many photos of a tea house to me and said her family ran a tea business,” said Lin. He added that he was not suspicious of her at all, because she had also sent him a video showing her in a tea house and calling his name.

Jingjing continued to frequently send photos and videos of the tea house to Lin. She claimed that the tea house had been set up by her mother, and her aged grandpa still worked very hard and roasted tea leaves. She wanted to help and had begun to learn to roast tea leaves, but her hand was accidentally burnt and she even sent a photo of her injured hand to Lin. “She said her life was tough. Her mother had died early and her stepmother always wanted to take over the tea house,” Lin said.

Lin was gradually duped into the scam by these “touching” stories. Once, Jingjing told him that her stepmother wanted to snatch the tea house away. She said she had made a bet with her stepmother that if she sold 100,000 yuan worth of tea within four days, the tea house would be given back to her. Lin thought she was a hard-working and aspiring girl, so he bought nearly 6,000 yuan worth of “Wuyi Mountain tea” for 600 yuan per kg. After receiving the tea, Lin found the quality of the tea was far from satisfactory. “But I didn’t care about it because of sympathy,” he said. Lin sent her a total of 11,000 yuan within several months.

He realized he was being swindled when he found that the way Jingjing talked to him was different one day. He noticed that the new person was inexperienced, so he repeatedly told her that she was liable for the scam, which made her scared. After persuasion, Jingjing admitted to the fraud and truthfully told him that they were a fraud ring. For fear of legal consequences, she even told Lin their address on WeChat. Lin called police the next day.

Police busted the fraud ring in a building in Longhua District on Aug. 22 with the information provided by Lin. They had swindled nearly 200 people, involving more than 500,000 yuan.

It has been reported that the names used by the ring on WeChat were all Jingjing, and that the photos were all of young long-haired beauties. The suspects became friends through apps and made up plots to lure victims to buy tea. (Zhang Yu)