Bogus China fortune teller convinces gullible ‘best friend’, 30, she only has a year to live, swindles her out of US$210,000 to ‘extend life’
30-year-old told to keep transaction secret to keep it ‘effective’
Family of victim smells a rat, takes woman to police
Fran Lu
Published: 6:00pm, 29 Nov, 2023
A superstitious woman in China, who was told she had less than a year to live by her “best friend” posing as an online fortune-teller, handed over a total of 1.5 million yuan (US$210,000) to extend her life.
The woman, who uses the pseudonym, Xiaoxia, said she was told in 2021 at the age of 30 by a “senior Taoist priest” that she would not live past 31, and she needed to buy a talisman acquired after innumerable hardships to “extend her life”.
The fortune-teller also told Xiaoxia to keep their transaction secret or “it would not be effective”.
Xiaoxia believed the so-called priest and raised one million yuan by borrowing from her relatives and friends, with online loans, and by mortgaging an apartment her sister registered under her name, to pay for the talisman via a chat app.
The end-of-life fraud was perpetrated on the woman via the WeChat app. Photo: Baidu
Her family realised something was wrong and took Xiaoxia to the police. It transpired the fortune-teller was actually disguised by her “best friend” and roommate, surnamed Lu.
Xiaoxia and Lu met online and became real-life friends in 2012.
In 2019, Xiaoxia told Lu she had trouble finding a job and Lu recommended using the Chinese horoscope and fortune-telling to improve her luck.
In 2020, Lu invited Xiaoxia to live with her in Shanghai. After Xiaoxia moved in, Lu introduced her to a “senior Taoist priest”, surnamed Wang, on a chat app.
Wang told Xiaoxia her fortune could be improved at a cost of 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month, as well as selling her several objects to bring her luck.
Xiaoxia left Shanghai in 2021 and stopped offering her “monthly sacrifice”.
Xiaoxia was conned out of 1.5 million yuan in total by her so-called best friend.
The superstitious woman borrowed heavily and even mortgaged her home to satisfy the demands of the bogus fortune-teller. Photo: Baidu
In November, the Shanghai Qingpu Procuratorate prosecuted Lu for fraud and ordered her to return 275,000 yuan to Xiaoxia.
In May, another Shanghai procuratorate took legal action against a man who scammed his ex-girlfriend of 45,000 yuan to gamble and later tried to escape the debt by disguising himself as his brother and telling the ex-girlfriend he had “died from cancer”.
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Fran Lu
Fran has been a reporter since 2014, mainly covering social and cultural stories about China. She writes about lifestyle, social trends and youth culture.
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