

A man who disguised himself as a soldier and swindled female students out of money at university campuses across China was arrested this past week in Ningbo.

According to Phoenix News, Zhao Maolin isn’t an army man but in fact a regular fraudster who had swindled six female students a total of eight times.



Just over a week ago on the afternoon of October 22, Zhao made headlines when he was seen standing in front of a teaching building at Fuzhou University claiming that he had traveled from Hunan to propose to his girlfriend.

A few days ago Zhao was also spotted by security guards on patrol at Ningbo University, raising suspicion as to his identify and intentions. After being reported and sent to the local police station, the truth finally emerged.



Zhao cracked quickly under interrogation and confessed that he disguised himself as a soldier to scam female university students out of money. His activities have also seen him travel to other exotic locations such as Xiamen and Changsha.

His scam involved him dressing in army uniform and loitering around school campuses waiting for naive female students. Once identified he would strike up a conversation claiming that he had been dumped by his girlfriend and needed money to return home to his troops.



His second, equally as convincing method for swindling victims involved telling them that he fell asleep in a cave while his unit was carrying out exercises and had got lost, requiring money to buy a train ticket to get back to base.

He still seems amateur in comparison to the 41-year-old man from Hebei who simultaneously dated 15 university students, tricking them into lending him thousands of yuan.

By Lucy Liu

[Images via China Daily // NetEase ]

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