Influencer cons childless elderly woman, steals ₹65 lakh after calling her ‘mum’

An online racketeer scammed an elderly woman, pretending to be “like” her loving son. He eventually convinced her to hand over large sums of money. This incident is not from India, but from China, and the victim was a Shanghai woman in her 70s. 

She's unmarried and childless. Sensing the vulnerability of the childless woman, the scammer exploited the emotional void by sharing cooked-up heartfelt stories and affectionately addressing her as 'mum/mom.'

According to South China Morning post, an online influencer in China, with 42,000 followers, scammed 560,000 yuan (US$76,000 or ₹65,74,464) out of a lonely elderly woman by making up moving stories and pretending to be like her son.

How was the scam unveiled?

In 2022, the woman's niece found that she had been constantly transferring money to a stranger. The niece was quoted by SCMP as saying that the woman was attracted to the man’s “kindness”.

She initially sent small gifts in his live-streams in 2021, and was later tricked to buy illegitimate health products.

The man then added the elderly woman's personal contact, and began calling her “mum”. He greeted her every day like a real son, and before long began borrowing money from her.

He made excuses to do so. These included him being diagnosed with early-stage stomach cancer, his girlfriend needing abortion, and his father being seriously ill.

The woman fell for them all, and even borrowed money herself to send to her “son”. She threatened to “jump off the building” when her relatives from whom she borrowed money suggested that she call the police.

The elderly woman late got suspicious when the man greeted her less frequently.

He first drove more than 1,000 km to visit her, and made videos of them together using music that praises mother’s love, then he asked her to stop contacting him because “you don’t trust me”, the report stated.

She finally approached the police at the end of 2023. Investigators found the cunning man used four accounts to chat with her, each registered with a different identity.

Police successfully tracked him down because the woman, deeply moved by his visit in person, took a photo of his car registration plate.

Police in Shanghai arrested the man and prosecutors charged him with scamming a total of 560,000 yuan out of the elderly woman over a two-year period.