Police investigate suicide following telephone scam

Police in Huilai county, South China's Guangdong province, have set up a special task force to investigate the case of a would-be freshman who committed suicide after she was defrauded of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,500) in a telephone scam.

However, a local police officer said on Friday that no details of the case could be revealed at the moment.

Cai Shuyan, 19, left home on Aug 28 after posting a message in a QQ chat room, telling her family that she was too ashamed to see her mother again after she was defrauded of a large sum of money which is almost equal to the annual income of her mother, a farmer in a poor remote village in the county's Qishi township.

Cai's body was found by police along the county's coastline on Aug 29. Cai's mother, who was informed by police to attend a local mortuary to identify the body on Aug 31, confirmed it was her daughter.

Cai did not take her identy card or any cash when she left home.

Cai's mother said the money that had been swindled was supposed to pay for her daughter's tuition fees. Cai had received an admission offer from Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Arts after she passed the