These marriages are termed “flash weddings” because the brides often escape, disappear, or coerce the men into divorce through various means, including frequent conflicts. - Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock
BEIJING: A group of matchmaking companies in southwestern China has come under police scrutiny for defrauding desperate single men out of significant sums of money, while some women posed as potential brides in the scam.
Some of these women earned as much as 300,000 yuan (US$42,000) within months.
According to a statement from a court in Guiyang, Guizhou province, released in September, a police station in the Huaguoyuan area has received 180 reports of matchmaking fraud since March last year.
During this period, the court has resolved 50 disputes involving substantial matchmaking fees, as reported by Red Star News.
Before the authorities initiated their crackdown, many of these matchmaking agencies rented upscale office spaces in Huaguoyuan to enhance client trust.
Some staff actively sought out single men from small and remote cities across the country, while others focused on recruiting single women, most of whom were divorced and in debt, persuading them to participate in the scam to deceive male customers.
In numerous instances, just days after male clients met the women arranged by the agency, they agreed to marry. They were instructed to sign contracts with the agency and pay hundreds of thousands of yuan as a bride price.
These marriages are referred to as “flash weddings” because the brides would often flee, vanish, or pressure the men into divorce through various means, including frequent conflicts after a brief period together.
One woman, notorious in the industry, reportedly earned 300,000 yuan in three months by engaging in multiple flash marriages.
According to reports, she registered for marriage with a client in December last year, only to file for divorce shortly thereafter, claiming domestic violence.
She did not return the 170,000 yuan bride price to the man and even took some shared property, including a car he had bought for her.
After the divorce, the woman continued to go on blind dates while the agency concealed her divorce status.
One victim of this scam, a man surnamed Liao, shared his experience on Red Star News.
In May, Liao travelled to Guiyang from his hometown in central Hubei province to meet a woman introduced by an agency, with whom he registered for marriage just two days later.
He also paid a cash gift of 118,000 yuan (US$16,000) to the bride’s family.
In the two months following their wedding, Liao’s wife frequently left their hometown to return to Guiyang. She requested that he buy her a home and a car and often quarrelled with him.
Liao later discovered that she had concealed the fact that she had given birth to five children previously.
When Liao sought a refund from the agency in Guiyang, he found that the company had been shut down due to a police investigation.
A former customer service representative at one of the agencies before the police raid informed the Red Star News that there was no shortage of male customers.
“We do not worry about the source of male customers at all. There are many across the country,” the worker was quoted as saying. “We can select a male customer for blind dates from 40 to 50 candidates every day.”
He noted that following the intensified crackdown by Guiyang authorities, some of these agencies had relocated their operations to nearby Yunnan province. - South China Morning Post
