Busted: online China ‘scammer with a heart’ snared after sending US$23 lucky money gift to victim he conned out of US$40,000
- Police nail scammers by using transfer receipt for red-packet lucky money
- Gang member sent victim genuine ‘good fortune’ gift after US$40,000 sting
A gang of scammers in China who had conned a woman out of 290,000 yuan (US$40,000) in a bogus investment scheme were snared by police after one of them sent their victim a lucky money red packet.
A police officer, Hu Lei, said they used cash transfer information to find the racketeers’ account and located a suspect, surnamed Liu, in Hunan province, southern China.
The police then went on to detain the rest of the gang, according to Chongqing Broadcasting Group.
The racketeers had successfully scammed the victim, surnamed Wan, by launching a fake investment platform to persuade investors interested in cryptocurrency to pour money into the platform.
It is unclear how the gang found their potential targets, but once they did, they would keep open communications with the victims on WeChat before convincing them to invest in the fraudulent investment company.
At the beginning of this year, Liu found Wan and convinced her to invest 290,000 yuan. At the time, Wan did not know that she had been deceived and was thankful Liu had helped her make an investment.