China woman stages sham wedding with ‘rich’ man, scams relatives out of US$1.6 million

All those involved in the racket were detained and later received prison terms. - QQ.com via SCMP

HONG KONG (SCMP): A Shanghai woman staged a wedding with a man posing as a rich real estate businessman, promised to buy her relatives cheap properties and scammed 12 million yuan (US$1.6 million) out of them.

In a story that has shocked mainland social media, the 40-year-old woman, surnamed Meng, hatched a plan to con her relatives when the small real estate agency she ran failed in 2014, Shanghai TV reported in January.