A MAN was arrested by Bao’an police Sept. 10 for allegedly defrauding more than 10 women by pretending to be rich while dating them, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

One of the victims surnamed Yang went to the Nansha Police Station in Bao’an in the beginning of September, claiming that her “rich boyfriend” had defrauded her.

According to Yang, she met the man identified as Wen in the beginning of the year via WeChat’s random “Friend Radar” function. Yang said she saw a good-looking man on his profile picture.

The man told Yang that he was a native of Fuyong Subdistrict. In Yang’s eyes, this information implied that he might have a rich family that owned several properties in Shenzhen.

Wen sent Yang pictures of himself and his ID card to show the sincerity of his intentions. Wen also mentioned that he had invested in a variety of businesses, such as real estate and tea houses.

Wen drove a BMW and wore luxury-brand clothing when he met Yang for the first time. He told Yang that his chauffeur normally drives him around. Yang fell for Wen who appeared very polite and rich.

They struck up a romantic relationship after the second date. However, it was then that things went in a different direction from Yang had expected.

Wen asked Yang to lend him some money one month later, explaining that he had invested in a project worth around 20 million yuan (US$2.92 million) in a northern city, but it had some cash flow difficulties. Yang trusted Wen and transferred a total of 350,000 yuan to him over four transactions.

However, when she posted pictures of her boyfriend on WeChat, a woman contacted her and said Wen was her boyfriend too. After some discussion with the other woman, Yang called the police.

A police investigation found that Wen was actually a migrant worker from Jiangxi Province surnamed Hu. He had previously worked at a printing factory in Fuyong.

On Hu’s mobile phone, police found that he had been dating over 10 women at the same time, and he had “borrowed” money from all of them.

The suspect had defrauded the victims, who were mainly living in Bao’an, of nearly 1 million yuan.

“The suspect pretended to be a rich man by using fake luxury-brand goods and a rented car,” said a police officer, adding that “he would trick the women with sweet talk and make them transfer money to him.”

The suspect is currently under criminal detention while the police investigate further.

(Zhang Qian)