Big Deposit

[abcdefg]

Saw this flyer yesterday freshly posted at a city bus stop here in Kunming. Anyone seen similar advertisements in the city where you live?

Was impressed by the size of the deposit 定金 she requires: 50万. That's 500,000 RMB.

[Kenny同志]

This kind of scam is not new.

[imron]

Was impressed by the size of the deposit 定金 she requires: 50万

I think she is saying she will pay that much deposit (for a deposit of a different kind) for a man to fulfill her dreams of motherhood, seeing as her rich husband is infertile.

[abcdefg]

OK. That makes more sense. When I got home, I read the text word by word laboriously, but didn't put it together correctly. I thought that Jasmine Zhang, elegant and charming, was looking for a husband, but the guy would have to pay for her hand in marriage.

A local friend commented at the time that it was surely a scam, but did not elaborate on how it worked. It's even more diabolical than I first realized.

Here's the text as I transcribed it from the photo:

本人张莉，女，28岁，身高165cm,高雅迷人，丰富商先天性不育，为继庞大家业，探亲之际经夫协商，特寻异建康品正的男士圆我母亲梦，电话谈妥速汇定金50万，（本人即赴你处单独秘密与你约见）不影响家庭、事业、事成之后，重酬！（本人亲谈，不诚勿扰）

And for any diehard fans of machine translation, here was what came out when my "manual" translation efforts did not bear fruit and I resorted to that route:

I Zhang, female, 28 age, height 165cm, elegant charming, rich commercial congenital does not finishing, for following huge possessions, visits Zhiji Tsuneo consultation, special found different Jiankang products are of men round I mother dream, phone on properly speed meeting deposit 500,000, (I that went to you Department separate secret and you interview) does not effects family, and cause, and thing into zhihou, heavy paid! (I talk about, if you are not)

[liuzhou]

She (or her friends) pop up all over the place. Here is one somewhat defaced example I found in Liuzhou, Guangxi this afternoon.

[abcdefg]

Is the Liuzhou pretty lady also seeking someone to get her pregnant because her husband is infertile? And will she also pay the lucky guy for doing it? I would do it free if no laboratory apparatus were involved.

Suppose it boils down to: "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't."

[liuzhou]

Yeah. Same deal,same deposit. Same scam.

[imron]

Yep, the script is basically the same, plus or minus a few minor details, but basically a woman with an infertile but incredibly wealthy husband looking for someone to get her pregnant. 500,000 deposit and a cool million upon success.

I would do it free if no laboratory apparatus were involved.

You could try calling the number

[Kenny同志]

He can’t do that, I am afraid, because he’s white. If he does the favour and gets the lady pregnant, everyone will know she has cheated on her Chinese husband. And ultimately, besides bringing disgrace to herself and the family, she will probably lose all she's having.

[abcdefg]

#9 -- Ah! Too bad, Kenny. My heart is broken!

[Kenny同志]

Hehe, well, I don’t think those who try to get in touch with the woman will ever have the chance to spend a wild night with her. In fact, they really should thank God if they manage to keep their money in pocket before they realise it’s a dirty scam.

[Kenny同志]

Ah! The woman in the picture liuzhou posted was probably a porn star! I am sure I saw her somewhere on the Internet.

Edit:

To be clear, I didn't watch the video.

[liuzhou]

That's what they all say!

[Kenny同志]

Found it.

[liuzhou]

It's amazing what you find in your favourites folder!

[Kenny同志]

I am not going to deny it. As a rule of thumb, the more you account for it, the more people tend to think you did it. In other words, I can only 愈描愈黑.

[大肚男]

I don't understand the end goal here. Are they requiring the man to deposit the money first hand? Kif so you have to be a special kind of idiot to fall for the scam.

[imron]

No, they are saying they will pay the man that much money.

It's a bit like the Nigerian 419 scams, except instead of an African prince offering you millions of dollars, it's a woman offering sex and money.

They offer a big payout, but when you call up they say, oh, first you just need to send me a small amount of money for such and such expense (flights and accomodation, medical checkup etc), and then they keep going to see how much they can milk you for. I was reading some of the examples linked to by Kenny in #2, and there was some 72 year old guy who fell for it, and ended up paying 8,000 of his own savings plus 30,000 borrowed from high-interest loan sharks before figuring it out (and then only because the loan sharks came to collect the money, which he couldn't pay, which led to him confessing to his wife what had happened and going to the police who told him about similar scams).

Anyway, yes, you have to be a special kind of idiot to fall for such things, but like the Nigerian scams show, the world is not short of people for whom greed trumps intelligence.

[rob07]

I thought the idea with this one was also that you are told everything has to be very private and secret, so you turn up to a secluded apartment to meet the woman without having told anyone where you are going, but then several large men jump out of the closet, take everything you have on you and also try to force you to give them credit card details etc.

[Kenny同志]

In many cases, you wouldn't even meet the woman before you're swindled out of money.