Chinese woman hitchhiker persuades random driver who picked her up to "marry" her, lies about rented properties, and tells friends and relatives her "new husband" is real estate entrepreneur.
A Shanghai woman staged a wedding with a man posing as a rich real estate businessman, promised to buy her relatives cheap properties and scammed 12 million yuan (US$1.6 million) out of them.
In a story that has shocked mainland social media, the 40-year-old woman, surnamed Meng, hatched a plan to con her relatives when the small real estate agency she ran failed in 2014, Shanghai TV reported in January.
In order to convince her relatives, she proposed to the driver of a random car she met while hitchhiking to stage a fake wedding, using the excuse that her parents were pushing her to get married because of her age.
The married driver, surnamed Jiang, agreed and held a wedding with her using a pseudonym.
Meng told her relatives that Jiang was responsible for the construction of many big real estate projects, and had connections in the business that allowed them to purchase new properties cheaply.
Meng then bought a small flat worth one million yuan (US$137,000), and sold it to her cousin at half the price.
She then asked him to lie to the relatives that he only paid half price because Meng and Jiang had connections.
Meng also took her relatives to the showrooms of new residential compounds, and told them she could lower the price by 5,000 yuan (US$700) per square metre, about 20 per cent cheaper than the original price.
At least five relatives were reported to have fallen into Meng’s trap and gave her a big sum of money to buy flats. Some even sold the flats they lived in to change for a better property.
Meng first stalled for years saying it took time to arrange the discount, and around 2018 and 2019, she rented flats for those relatives and lied that they were the properties they bought.
She did not give them a property ownership certificate saying it was “temporarily impossible” to get one for discount properties.
It was only when one of the victims realised something was wrong, and went to check with the real property developer, that she discovered the flat she lived in was not owned by her.
Another victim, Meng’s cousin, even spent more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) to decorate and furnish a rented flat.
A court jailed Meng for 12 years and six months for contract fraud.
Her fake husband received six years because he was the one who signed the house-leasing contracts with the flats’ real owners. Her cousin who lied in front of other relatives was given a five-year sentence.
European shares dropped on Friday after President Donald Trump intensified tariff threats against the EU, casting doubt on trade talks and dampening i...
China’s exports are expected to have grown 5% in June as manufacturers hurried goods abroad ahead of a 12 August deadline that could see the U.S. re...
U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is set to arrive in Kyiv on Monday for a week-long visit, Ukrainian outlet Novyny.LIVE reported on Frid...
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport and Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Works have reached an agreement on the construction of a new railway line to c...
Two of China’s biggest electric-vehicle makers may have to return a combined 373 million yuan (about $53 million) in state aid after a government au...
China’s exports are expected to have grown 5% in June as manufacturers hurried goods abroad ahead of a 12 August deadline that could see the U.S. restore punitive tariffs, a Reuters survey of economists indicates.
China said it is ready to "continuously" boost strategic coordination with Moscow. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that Beijing is prepared to help safeguard both countries’ security and development interests.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malaysia, calling the talks 'positive and constructive' despite growing tensions over new U.S. tariffs on Asian economies.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will depart for China on Saturday for an official visit centred on regional security concerns and strengthening economic ties.
Australian researchers have pioneered a low-cost and scalable plasma-based method to produce ammonia gas directly from air, offering a green alternative to the traditional fossil fuel-dependent Haber-Bosch process.
A series of earthquakes have struck Guatemala on Tuesday afternoon, leading authorities to advise residents to evacuate from buildings as a precaution against possible aftershocks.
A deadly mass shooting early on Monday (7 July) in Philadelphia's Grays Ferry neighbourhood left three men dead and nine others wounded, including teenagers, as more than 100 shots were fired.
The 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) was successfully held in Khankendi, Azerbaijan, highlighting the region’s revival and the deepening economic cooperation among member states.
Dozens of international and domestic flights were cancelled or delayed after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted on Monday, but Bali’s main airport remains operational.
Washington and Ottawa are once again at odds, as President Trump unveils a sharp new tariff on Canadian goods—citing drug trafficking and trade disputes just weeks ahead of a key deadline.
France recorded over 100 drowning deaths in just one month — a 58% rise from last year — as unusually high temperatures drove more people to water, public health officials say.
Migration offset natural decline for the fourth consecutive year, pushing the European Union’s population to an historic high of 450.4 million in 2024, according to Eurostat figures released on Friday.
Germany’s public debt is projected to climb from 62.5% to 74% of GDP by 2030, driven by record defence and infrastructure spending, according to a report by the European rating agency Scope.
The global oil market may be tighter than headline supply-demand figures suggest, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday, citing rising refinery activity and seasonal summer demand as key drivers of short-term market pressure.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment