Foreigner involved in con game sentenced
Print Edition
A 28-YEAR-OLD man from Cameroon was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail and fined 5,000 yuan (US$770) for fraud, the Putuo District People’s Court said yesterday.
The man claimed to be a retired British engineer and swindled a local woman out of 63,000 yuan with a bit of magic trick as well.
Prosecutors said the foreigner identified himself as “Frank” and got in touch with the victim, surnamed Zhou, on QQ, a popular online chatting application, on January 13. He claimed he was looking for a partner.
The two soon started an online romance. “Frank” told Zhou, who was in her 50s, that he would visit her in Shanghai one day and buy a house for her. During one of those chats, “Frank” told her that he had a safe box in Ghana with all his life savings — about US$5.6 million. The company that was entrusted with it was asking him to take it back.
Since he was abroad and traveling, he asked Zhou if she could help him out. After she agreed to help him, “Frank” told her that someone from his company would give her the box but she had to pay the staffer 50,000 yuan first.
On July 6, Zhou met the swindler, who showed up as the “company worker,” at her home and gave him the promised 50,000 yuan.
The worker gave her a locked box, and then performed a trick that made her believe that it was stuffed with “magic papers” that could turn into genuine US dollar bills.
He took a bottle of liquid and poured it into a basin. He soaked pieces of paper into it. Minutes later, he pulled out four US dollar bills from it and handed them over to Zhou. He told her to check its authenticity with the bank after drying them.
The foreigner told Zhou that since he did not have enough of the “magic liquid” with him, he could not convert all the paper in the box into bills. He told her he would bring more liquid next time as well as the rest of the money, which was in another box. Zhou paid him 13,000 yuan as service fee before he left.
The next day, Zhou spoke about the “magic act” to her neighbor, who suspected something fishy. They broke opened the box and found useless papers inside.
The swindler contacted Zhou again and demanded another 400,000 yuan, saying he would bring the other box. This time Zhou reported the matter to the police, who waited for him at her place.
When he came to her place to pick up the money, the police arrested him.
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