19 Chinese men looking for life partners discovered that they shared only two spouses and were duped out of more than 2 million yuan (about 300,000 euros) by them.
The two women and three accomplices, who appeared to be family members, were captured by authorities in Inner Mongolia, China’s autonomous territory, this week. According to the South China Morning Post, investigators have unearthed an intricate scam plan that involves the conclusion of 19 marriages, as far as is known.
The entire tale came to light after one of the bride and grooms discovered a wedding video on social media and discovered that the bride was his wife. The man went to the police, and it was discovered after an inquiry that the “loving wife” was part of a group of five people who set up an innovative marriage scam.
As a result, two women played the parts of husbands and three other persons played the roles of close relatives.
The two women were able to persuade 19 guys to marry them in less than two years. They also requested cash or beautiful engagement gifts, which they obtained. The majority of the 19 brides are from rural areas, where finding a lifemate is quite difficult due to the fact that the number of males outnumbers the number of women. According to the most recent census of China’s population, the country has 17.52 million more men between the ages of 20 and 40, deemed marriageable age, than women in the same age category.
Under various pretexts, the 19 men were convinced to postpone the marriage’s legal registration.
In the first phase, the 35-year-old man from Urad, who saw his wife marrying a man from a nearby town in an internet clip, contacted the second husband and together they went to the police station, realizing that they had been duped because the woman had demanded both jewels and large sums of money as a gift.
The woman, from Gansu Province, was introduced to them by a “suitor” who turned out to be a con artist. She had been married to her first husband for two months when the story was found, but she only stayed with him for ten days, claiming that she needed to care for her gravely ill parents.
The two women acted identically and met their boyfriends through the same suitor, according to investigators. The first marriages ended in 2019, and the two wedded a total of 19 men in the interim.