Man held for Olympic photo scam

By Li Xinran  |   2008-7-16  |     ONLINE EDITION

A MAN has been detained in Beijing for cheating families by posing as an Olympics official, Xinhua news agency reported today.

The suspect, Xing, swindled hundreds of families in northeast China's Daqing City and Yanji City by pretending to be collecting photographs of children for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games.

Xing pretended to be an official from the Beijing organizing committee and advertised in newspapers, conning 141 families in Daqing. Each family had paid him 180 yuan (US$26.42) as a "registration fee", Xinhua said.

Police officers from Daqing caught Xing at his Beijing home on Friday.

Xing was reported to have made more than 40,000 yuan from the scam.

Zhang Yimou, a famous Chinese filmmaker and director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games, told China.com.cn on March 12 that he would use thousands of pictures of smiling children from around world as an ending for the opening ceremony.