A man who claimed to be with the Hong Kong Jockey Club allegedly duped five Beijingers out of 470,000 yuan, according to Beijing Times.

"Three of the five local victims reported the case to local police while the other two, who are postgraduates in local universities and were apparently afraid of the swindle's impact on their futures, chose to keep silent even though they were duped out of around 100,000 yuan," a 33-year-old member of a QQ group, who declined to be named, told Beijing Times.

The QQ group recounts the experiences of victims across the country who have been deceived by those claiming to be board assistants, financial directors, or planning operators with exclusive information on the Mark Six Lottery.

The 33-year old QQ group victim registered on a dating website in 2008 and became friends with a man who claimed to be with the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The girl chose to believe the man because of his handsome photo and charm. After remitting a total of 140,000 yuan to the swindler who claimed to have inside information on the Mark Six Lottery, she lost contact with him.

"A total of 20 females in the group were deceived of up to 1.7 million yuan. The victims include those from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou province and Taiwan. The amounts of the frauds range from 5,000 yuan to 210,000 yuan," the woman said.

"Most of the victims are single and have passed on their personal information on social networking websites. The swindlers contact the victims mainly through MSN and Skype."

Most of the victims' money is remitted to bank accounts in Fujian province, Hainan province, Guangdong province and the Citi Bank in Hong Kong, according to the woman.

"I know there is little chance of me getting my money back, I feel angry with the swindlers who are still at large," a Dongcheng resident, who was duped out of 120,000 yuan, told Beijing Times.

Whenever the expenditure of dating exceeds a certain amount, the lover should have second thoughts said Chen Youhong, an expert with a dating website named baihe.com.

Beijng's Xuanwu police detained three suspects in Fujian province in May for a remote online Mark Six Lottery fraud after a female surnamed Wang who was duped out of 180,000 yuan reported the case to the local police.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/09/2010 page25)