Teen held by police over alleged mask fraud

Credit: Pudong police

An 18-year-old man in Shandong Province has been apprehended for allegedly defrauding a 17-year-old student living in Shanghai over facial masks, police said on Friday.

The male student, who is surnamed Jin, reported to police in the Pudong New Area on February 10 that he lost 47,000 yuan (US$6,700) to someone on the Internet from whom he intended to buy facial masks.

Jin allegedly said he raised the money from his classmates to buy masks for medical workers in Hubei Province and got into contact with a person on January 27 who claimed to have masks to sell.

The person, who contacted Jin on QQ, claimed that he had a quantity of masks in supply at preferential prices and could deliver the masks directly to hospitals in Hubei. However, after Jin paid the money to him, he immediately dropped out of contact, police said.

Through their investigation, police located the suspect, a male surnamed Liu, in Yantai city, Shandong Province.

Liu was caught in that city on March 28 and has allegedly confessed.

Liu has been detained, police said.