Web fake Romeos busted

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August 3, 2013

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By Winter Zha | August 3, 2013, Saturday |

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A GANG of fake Romeos who netted more than 1 million yuan (US$163,000) targeting middle-aged women on dating websites have been busted by police.

Many victims were divorcees with children, said police. The men met the women online and persuaded them to “lend” them cash.

The conmen posed as rich, good-looking young men and even had different scripts for each date.

Shanghai police said they have detained four suspects alleged to have run the con more than 30 times countrywide, including three cases in Shanghai.

They were held in Zhejiang Province on July 4.

In a case in Shanghai’s Chongming Island, a kindergarten teacher was cheated out of more than 27,000 yuan by a man she met on a matchmaking website.

Claiming to be a businessman in Zhejiang, he asked the woman for loans to help a business he’d recently started.

The victim transferred money three times before her date suddenly went out of contact, said police.

One suspect, surnamed Li, is said to have told police that he “played the boyfriend of three different women at once.”

“Each time I picked up the phone I would look at my scripts in case I was getting them mixed up,” said Li.

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