Chinese women and match-making firms join hands to defraud men through 'flash weddings'

Reportedly, some of these women earn as much as 300,000 yuan, or $42,000 within months.

Chinese matchmaking firms have come under intense police scrutiny over allegations of swindling significant sums of money through 'flash weddings', with women posing as willing 'brides' for the scam.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, 'flash weddings' are scams where within days of their marriage, women either flee or pressure husbands into a divorce by engineering conflicts. Through this, they defraud the men of huge amounts.

Reportedly, some of these women can 'earn' as much as 300,000 yuan, or $42,000 within months.

A statement from a court in China's Guiyang said that a police station in the Huaguoyuan area has received 180 reports of matchmaking fraud since March last year.

During this period, the court has also presided over 50 cases against matchmaking services over their fees, SCMP reported, quoting Red Star News.

How do matchmaking services scam their clients?

The firms often rent upscale offices in Huaguoyuan in order to create the facade of a stable and trustworthy operation.

The staff are trained to reach out to desperate single men in small and remote cities across the country, while also convincing single women, usually divorced and/or in debt, to participate in the crime.

After 'matching' the victim to their bride, the couples would get married, sometimes within days of meeting. Grooms would sign contracts with the firms and pay the substantial matchmaking fees and a bride price too.

After a brief period of staying together, the bride would either vanish with the money, or force the husband to divorce her through various means.

Notably, one woman earned $42,000 through this method, where she married a man, and then divorced him on the grounds of domestic violence.

SCMP reported that she did not return the 170,000 yuan ($42,000) bride price to the man and even took some the shared marital property, including a car he had bought for her.

Why is this happening?

Men in China have become easy targets to such scams due to the gender-ratio disparity in the country. As per 2014 data, China had around 33 million more men than women, making it difficult for most of the men to get married.

Another report predicted that the number of unmarried Chinese men between 35 and 59 will reach 15 million in 2020 and 30 million in 2050.

(With DHNS and PTI inputs)