A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to five years in prison by the Pudong New Area People's Court for cheating a man of 320,000 yuan (US$51,584) whom she had met after a dating program on TV.
Prosecutors said the woman, surnamed Wu, contacted the divorced victim, surnamed Zhang, who had appeared in a matchmaking program on TV in October 2010.
The court heard that Zhang was taken in by Wu, who forged a college diploma and work permit and claimed that she was a primary school teacher in the Pudong New Area.
Later, Wu told Zhang that her father suffered a heart attack and asked him for about 143,000 yuan on January 16, 2011. Wu spent the money on personal expenses till she ran out of cash in April 2011.
She then claimed she was diagnosed with leukemia and forged medical bills for which Zhang paid her 5,000 yuan every month.
Between January 2011 till last September, Wu fleeced Zhang of 430,000 yuan, but the court counted 110,000 yuan as living expenses for the pair.
Wu surrendered to the police on October 11, a day after Zhang found out that Wu was jobless.
Wu was convicted of fraud but was handed a lighter sentence for turning herself in. The heaviest penalty for fraud is life in prison, according to the Chinese Criminal Law.
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