CHINA:Police have broken up a crooked matchmaking ring that charged lonely hearts exorbitant fees to meet make-believe millionaires looking for love, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing
For the vast majority of lonely hearts in China, where the dramatic pace of social change has made finding a perfect partner fiendishly difficult, it was one of the sales of the century - the chance to find love with a lonely millionaire also looking for love.
Too good to be true, it seems. Now Chinese police have cracked a matchmaking ring whose members pretended to be millionaires and introduced themselves to singles for exorbitant fees, according to local media.
Among those lonely hearts seeking wealthy or influential companionship were widower farmers, poor factory workers and elderly Communist Party cadres. They were lured in by the promise of romance with "big shots", as well as by other bribes, such as surrogate mother services.
Police in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian detained more than 10 members of the ring, which had obtained several million yuan (€1 million) from more than 1,000 people nationwide since last October, according to the Beijing News.
The gangsters work by registering their mobile phones with fake names, cancelling the numbers about 15 days after posting their advertisements and disappear, thereby leaving the fooled clients with no means to track them down.
"All of these were fake. When people came to consult, they would be warmly greeted and later would meet rich women or big shots who were in fact members of the group," said the local police officer. "If the clients had questions or doubts, the companies would ask them to turn to lawyers, who were also part of the ring."
Parks around the country have special unofficial days where parents offer their sons or daughters as potential partners, because the young people are too busy in the new China to find a mate.
Often a rich, successful son or daughter on offer means the man or woman is homosexual, but the offspring have yet to tell their parents and break what is still a major taboo in China.