Ti Gong

Fifty-four suspects have been arrested for allegedly defrauding people with false online advertisements of hair products, Shanghai police said on Thursday.

About 1,000 people around the country fell into the trap and lost more than 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) to the gang, police said.

One of them was a local woman surnamed Zhang, who is in her 30s.

Zhang said an advertisement of the product popped up when she was browsing a short video website. The product was said to be able to turn grey hair into black again within a short period of time and did not cost much.

It piqued Zhang’s interest and she added the WeChat number which appeared in the advertisement. There she found herself talking to a woman seemingly wearing a doctor’s apron.

Zhang was “diagnosed” to have certain health problems which allegedly caused her hair to turn grey and was recommended products worth 1,580 yuan.

However, the products didn’t work, so she was talked into buying another 12,000 yuan worth of goods. Still, her hair color didn’t change and she even started to have swollen skin on her head and face.

Having realized that she had been tricked, Zhang complained to police in Yangpu District.

The suspects were located in Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei provinces and were caught in a recent raid by police.

The advertised products in this case, police said, did not have any quality certificate and were of very low cost.

Among the suspects, 49 have been arrested, and five placed under restrictive measures.

One in four telecom and Internet fraud cases reported in Shanghai so far this year was related to online shopping, city police said.