Scammers Impersonate Jin Dong
After Nirvana in Fire <琅琊榜>, actor Jin Dong (靳東) was nicknamed “Auntie Killer” due to his popularity with middle-aged women. Unfortunately with his fame, he was a popular identity for scammers to impersonate. Shanghai Jing’an District People’s Court recently announced their decision in a trial where eight women were accused of impersonating Jin Dong and defrauding victims of 310,000 Chinese yuan.
The scammers would create social media account and update their profiles to mislead victims that they were chatting with the real Jin Dong. Since the middle-aged population are typically not as tech savvy, they were easily susceptible victims.
In the chat sessions, the scammers would often flatter the victims and call them “Baby” while asking about their daily lives. The scammers never admitted to being a “celebrity,” but would drop enough hints to mislead the victim. The scammers would often ask to add them in the close friends list and gain their trust first. They would then scam victims of hundreds of dollars in the name of joining his fans club or asking them to buy things. The time spent conning the victims ranged from one week to almost two years.
The victims included 60-year-old Mrs. Cheung, a loyal Jin Dong fan who joined a fan group in October 2021 and continuously transferred money to a member in the group named Jin Dong. Not long afterward, “Jin Dong” started making romantic advances and added her on Weixin where they would ask about her daily routine, talking late into the night. Mrs. Cheung fell for what she thought was her idol and transferred close to a total of CNY 200,000 before her son found out and called the police. She is still not willing to believe her idol was impersonated by scammers.
This group of scammers are led by a woman named Ms. Wang. She recruited seven others to carry out her plan and they created multiple accounts on social media impersonating Jin Dong, Jack Ma (馬雲), and other celebrities. The group would develop relationships with the victims while impersonating as celebrities and defraud them through different avenues including investments, charity, fans club fees, and online shopping.
The eight accused seemed to show remorse as they were willing to voluntarily return all illegal gains and pay all fines. Due to this, the court sentenced Ms. Wang to three years in jail and a fine of CNY 50,000. The other seven accused’s sentences ranged from two years imprisonment to four months detention subject to probation and fines.
Actor Jin Dong issued a statement on social media denouncing the scammers and thanking the court for their judgement.
This article was revised on February 7, 2024 to reflect that the actor impersonated in the case was Jin Dong, instead of Han Dong as initially reported.
Source: [1]
This article is written by Kiki for JayneStars.com.
@kiki
@Jaynestars
You are writing an article about Jin Dong, but you got his name incorrect. His name is Jin Dong, not Han Dong. Please correct his name. Thank you.
For a min, I thought I read wrong…
@Hohliu
I’m sure they won’t have this problem again on this website.
Poor Jin Dong…
The women who did this are pathetic. The sad part is although all the evidence of fraud and false impersonation is evident, one of the victims still thinks she was talking to her idol.
Don’t these mature women ever think to stop and think that these men and women will not want their money, and they will never try to sell their events or anything to the fans??!! Boggles my mind how star struck and stupid some mature adults are.
Glad everything was cleared up for Han Dong.
Sometimes it’s loneliness or obsession (and all gullible). We would think that maybe younger fans were likely victims but anyone could become one.
@BearBear
Hi and Happy Lunar New Year to you and all here. What you said is so true. Young people fall victim to these scams as well. It is just that I assumed that the granny types would be more alert once their mental faculties are working properly.
I’ve read that educated people have been victims of a variety of scams, but many were too embarrassed to report it. One such scam preying on emotions is a call about a child having been kidnapped or injured, and the parents need to wire money asap. Fear usually clouds one’s judgement upon receiving such dire messages. Luckily, some become suspicious before wiring huge amounts of cash.
@Renren 恭喜发财– Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!!
@Renren I hope you have an enjoyable time with your loved times and have lots of Chinese New Year goodies.
@msxie0714 I wonder if the scam types vary between countries. Heard about the kidnapping scams too. There are also love scams, the rich African man whose inheritance was stuck scam, cheap deal scams, credit card/bank scams (messages or phone calls informing that bank acc has been frozen etc), fake legal trouble scams, fake friend/family scams, etc etc. so many so scary. It’s like nothing is safe.