China woman pays off US$140,000 debt for ‘sleazy’ boyfriend, settles bogus ransom demand, cost of fake medical emergency
- Woman forks out US$28,000 a year for 5 years to pay off man’s debts
- He then fakes kidnapping, drug crime, death while living with another woman
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A grieving woman spent five years repaying her “dead” boyfriend’s one million yuan (US$140,000) debt and also handed over ransom money to his “kidnapper”, only to discover he had been stringing her along.
Using the alias Zhang, the woman from Zhejiang province in eastern China, said she was angry and sad that she had been fooled by her boyfriend, Yu, for six years.
When Zhang fell in love with Yu in 2017, she knew that he owed a lot of money after he told her a failed business venture had left him in debt.
Instead of leaving, Zhang, who runs a hotel business, chose to stand by him.
“I kept encouraging him and telling him that we would make the money to pay off his debts,” Zhang said.
The besotted woman helped her lover pay back 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) within a year, then a similar amount annually for another four years, until in February 2022, Zhang had cleared all Yu’s debts for him.
During that time, she did not know how he earned a living.
Just as Zhang began to feel excited about starting afresh with Yu and looked forward to life without debt, he sprang an unwelcome surprise on her.
Yu told Zhang that he and another man, nicknamed Xiaohei, who is involved with an arms and drugs trafficking ring, were caught by a gang with stolen drugs worth US$140,000.
Xiaohei told Zhang that if she did not pay a ransom, Yu would be killed.
A terrified Zhang paid the ransom without hesitation, then, expecting Yu to return home, she was alarmed when he told her he could not because he needed life-saving medical treatment.
The gullible woman continued to believe the con man’s increasingly implausible stories.
Then in October last year, Yu, pretending to be Xiaohei, contacted Zhang to say Yu had died and asked her to delete all chat records with him. A grief-stricken Zhang complied.
It is not clear if Zhang finally became suspicious, but she then reported Yu’s death to the police.
About two months later they found him alive and well and with a new girlfriend whom he had been dating since October last year.
When the police arrived at her flat to arrest him, Yu hid in a wardrobe underneath quilts and clothes.
He has since been charged with fraud.
The story provoked a frenzied discussion on mainland social media.
“Does Zhang have a love brain?” Asked one person.
Another said: “What a bad man.”
“Good woman meets sleazy man,” said a third.
