Man sentenced to prison for face mask fraud

A 27-year-old man on Tuesday became the first person in Shanghai to be jailed for fraud involving supplies needed in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Minhang District People's Court of Shanghai sentenced the man, who is surnamed Yan, to six years and six months in prison and fined him 50,000 yuan ($7,200) after he was found guilty of attempting to scam a customer of 1.66 million yuan for 2,700 cartons of face masks that he never had or intended to procure.

The defendant Yan pleaded guilty during the hearing.

According to the court, Yan had in late January replied to a woman's request for face masks which was posted on her social media platform. The woman, surnamed Lu, was told by Yan that he could purchase 3M face masks from the United States and arrange for the delivery via a chartered flight.

Lu then paid a deposit of 160,000 yuan to Yan through several bank transfers. She also bought him a smart phone worth 12,699 yuan as part of the deposit.

On Jan 31, Yan told the victim that the products had arrived at Daxing International Airport in Beijing and demanded for the remainder of the payment. But Lu refused to pay after learning from the delivery company that Yan did not have any goods delivered.

Lu reported the matter to the police on Feb 10.

Because of the viral outbreak, the trial was conducted with only three judges and two secretaries in the courtroom. The rest of the involved parties took part in the trial remotely using the internet.