Con man conjures healer

A man has been detained for swindling a local woman out of 600,000 yuan ($99,180) by posing online as a healer who promised to cure her chronically ill mother, police said Sunday.

Police arrested the suspect, surnamed Liu, after receiving a complaint in November from the victim, surnamed Chen, who said she paid the sum over 10 months after Liu put her in touch with a healer for her mother, according to a press release from the Songjiang District Public Security Bureau.

Police said Chen was looking for ways to treat her mother's condition when Liu contacted her online in March.

Liu offered to put Chen in touch with his godfather, who he said could introduce her to the healer. The introductions would all take place over the Internet via an instant messaging program. Liu said the healer could cure any illness and didn't even need to meet Chen's mother, which he claimed would be taboo, according to the press release.

It was unclear what type of art Liu claimed the healer practiced. Police said it involved some kind of ritual.

Chen put an inordinate amount of faith in Liu because she was friends with his girlfriend, said a press officer surnamed Zhou from the Songjiang District Public Security Bureau.

She contacted Liu's godfather, who put her in touch with the healer. The healer charged her 300 yuan for the first ritual, but the price only went up from there. Soon she was paying 1,000 yuan per ritual, usually through Liu or his girlfriend, Zhou told the Global Times. Liu's godfather also demanded money, telling Chen that he had a sick daughter.

By the end, Chen was paying the healer 100,000 yuan per ritual, according to the press release. She only began to doubt the healer after her mother's condition failed to improve after 10 months.

Police later found out that Liu's godfather and the healer were fictional. The suspect had conjured them by opening a couple of instant messenger accounts, which he used to communicate with Chen and string her along.

Zhou said that Chen's mother suffered from a chronic disease that was difficult to treat, but was not life threatening. Chen was not from a rich family and borrowed most of the money that she spent on the fictional healer. Liu had spent the money by the time he was arrested.

Police said Liu's girlfriend wasn't in on the scam.