Woman Cheats Ex-Boyfriend out of $90,000 With Photos of Fake Son

A woman was arrested after tricking a former partner into paying child support with photos of a child who she claimed was their son. After being reported to the police, the woman was arrested for fraud in China’s Suzhou City on April 20, according to the Hangzhou Daily.

The woman, named Bei, allegedly cheated her ex-boyfriend, named Zhao, out of 600,000 yuan ($90,000) for over two years. She edited photos of herself holding a friend’s son, who she claimed was fathered by Zhao.

From a Bad Relationship to a Nightmare

Zhao said he met Bei in 2016. But after only three months of being in a relationship, they broke up. Upon breaking up, Bei told her now ex-boyfriend that she was pregnant.

Zhao did not want to help raise a child, so he decided to give her 20,000 yuan ($3,000) for her to have an abortion. Bei then returned to her hometown of Suzhou. “I had no idea at that time that the following two years were gonna be a nightmare,” Bei told the Hangzhou Daily.

Zhao lives in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province—a two hour drive from Suzhou.

Bei did not find work once she returned home, and instead decided to live off of her ex-boyfriend.

“I think I wasn’t cheating him, it was taking revenge on him,” Bei said during a police interrogation, according to the Hangzhou News. “Zhao was bad to me first! When I was with him, I lost my job, but he was with me without any intent to get married! He never once took me to see his friends or family!”

Bei said that after she had an abortion, she didn’t intend to let him off so easily, according to the Hangzhou Daily. Then the lies began.

In May 2016, Bei contacted Zhao, and told him that she did not have an abortion, and wanted to keep their child. She told Zhao that she needed money to raise the baby, so he gave her another 20,000 yuan ($3,000).

By November 2016, Bei told Zhao that their son was born and sent him a fake photo. This time, Zhao sent her 100,000 yuan ($15,000).

From that time until May 2017, Zhao continued heeding Bei’s demands for money, all on the pretense of their son being sick. Each time he would send her up to 35,000 yuan ($5,000).

Bei even got multiple phone numbers to impersonate her parents, acting as if they were concerned about their grandson.

Below is an English translation of the texts that Bei sent to Zhao pleading for more money:

“I’m asking you, what’s the big deal about 10,000 yuan for child support? You think my mom and I are just causing you a problem for no reason? Every day now it’s me taking care of [our son] by myself. Have you even thought that if I hire a nanny, how much it would cost? How much would I even have left? You have to take him to the doctor for IV drips and buy milk powder for him. But after he’s grown, I don’t have to worry about soiled diapers, and I can stop buying milk powder, since he can just have meals. Is this too much to ask? This is the last time, since he’s grown, his immunity is stronger. You [sic.] [Zhao], I’m texting your older brother, I really can’t handle it, really! [Our son] is sick again, I’m overwhelmed, there are really too many sick kids during this season, I really can’t handle it.”

In July 2018, Bei now had claimed that their son was sent to a hospital in Shanghai, and demanded that Zhao’s older brother pay $30,000 ($4,500).

A month later, Bei claimed that her custody entitled her to more payments from Zhao, this time for a total of 150,000 yuan ($22,000).

By this time, Zhao had already found a wife, but didn’t dare to tell her about the situation. Since he worked as a businessman, he could still fulfill Bei’s demands.

“I later realized, I’ve only ever seen our child’s pictures through the phone, and never truly seen the boy! I later talked about this with my wife,” Zhao told the Hangzhou Daily.

Then, towards the end of 2018, Zhao’s wife was looking at Bei’s social media accounts, as well as of Bei’s friends. There, she discovered a familiar face, of a mother with her son—Zhao’s supposed son.

Zhao and his wife contacted Bei’s friend, and confirmed that the boy was indeed her son. The boy was not-at-all related to Bei. More surprisingly, the mother had no idea that Bei was using the boy’s pictures to defraud money from Zhao.

That is when Zhao decided to report the situation to the police. Zhao said that Bei was then arrested for fraud in Suzhou on April 20, according to the Hangzhou Daily.