A Chinese man has caused amusement online after he hid two gold bars inside a jar of chilli sauce and mailed them to another province as part of a scam to fund his stock trading account.
The incident recently unfolded in the Jinnan District of Tianjin in northern China when police took down a fraud scheme involving an elderly man.
Li Ruifang, a police officer from the Shuanglin Police Station, received an anti-fraud alert indicating that an elderly man, surnamed Zhao, might be in contact with scammers.
She rushed to apprehend Zhao and took him in for an interview.
“I was not scammed. I was just casually chatting with a friend about stocks,” Zhao insisted, refusing to reveal further details about the “investment”.
Li then switched tactics and began talking to him as a fellow “investor”.
She explained the proper procedures for legitimate investments and broke down common techniques used by fraudsters.
After nearly two hours of conversation, Zhao finally opened up.
He admitted that he had found an advertisement for “cash cow stock tips” on a short video platform.
After scanning a QR code, he downloaded a trading app.
With guidance from supposed “insiders”, he was tricked into buying gold and mailing it out to be “cashed in”.
When initially asked about the contents of the gold package, Zhao claimed it was “food for a friend”.
Eventually, he confessed that he had hidden two gold bars weighing 30 grams inside the chilli sauce jar as instructed by the scammer.
“If you still do not believe it is a scam, try withdrawing your money from the app!” Officer Li told him.
Zhao tried but failed to withdraw his money multiple times and realised he had been conned.
The police then contacted the mailing company’s customer service hotline and requested an emergency interception. The package was successfully retrieved and scheduled for return.
It contained the two gold bars.
The police returned them to Zhao and helped him recover 34,000 yuan (US$5,000).
Financial scams targeting vulnerable elderly people in China have been on the rise.
The incident, reported by China Tianjin Radio and TV Station, triggered much humour online.
One person said: “Ha, the actions of grandpas are always so wild.”
“This is the first time I have heard of gold being hidden in chilli paste. Thankfully, the police intercepted it in time; otherwise, the loss would have been huge. Truly, the police are like real-life superheroes!” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
