A 21-year-old woman from Hong Kong was the bride earlier this year in what she originally believed to be a mock wedding on the Chinese mainland, only later did she come to realize that she had been fooled and that she was actually legally married.

The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told local media that the apparent scam began with a Facebook ad for a make-up artist apprenticeship that caught her eye. After applying, the company then convinced her that she should pursue a career in wedding planning instead, explaining that she could earn more money in that field.

In June, she was given a week-long free training course in Hong Kong before being told that in order to pass the course she would have to travel to Fujian province and participate in a mock wedding ceremony. The ceremony took place at a local government office in Fuzhou between the woman and a man of a similar age. During the ceremony, the company convinced her to sign a marriage certificate, claiming that it would be void afterward.

It was only after arriving home and telling her strange story to a friend that the woman realized she had likely been bamboozled. Due to a lack of evidence, local police were reluctant to help, so the woman went to the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) who agreed that she had become a victim to a “new form of marriage scam.”

After marrying a Hong Kong resident, mainland Chinese citizens can apply to reside in the city. Hong Kong police reportedly see about 1,000 cross-border marriage scam cases a year, though it appears scammers are getting more and more inventive.

[Images via Oriental Daily]