Zeng did not realize he was completely incompatible with Qi until they started cohabiting. He complained that Qi has tattoos which he claimed he told the agent he does not like, and that she refused to help him run his market stall or do housework. She also refused to be intimate and played with her mobile phone day and night, he complained.
About a month later, Qi asked Zeng for 2,000 yuan (US$286) to go visit her father, who she claimed was ill. When she failed to return after a couple of weeks, he went to Qi’s home, discovering her father was quite well.
Zeng now broke off the engagement and asked for his money back, but Qi said she had spent it all and was quite penniless. At this point, Zeng filed a police report, and Qi was detained for alleged fraud on September 25, 2024. The police told Zeng that Qi had cheated another man in Zhejiang Province in the same way just one month before.
In a WeChat group about alleged marriage fraud, seven interviewed victims told NewsChina their brides had left them. They all claimed they were left significantly out of pocket after paying agents and their intended brides, and wanted police to detain the brides and agents on charges of “marital fraud,” a crime which is not on China’s statute books.
Many similar cases end up as civil cases, not criminal. Lawyers said that fraud should be based on confirmed purpose of “unlawful possession” and behavior that cheats victims by “faking facts” or “covering-up the truth.” According to Chinese law, giving sums of money and betrothal gifts for the purpose of marriage is legal.
“The difficulty lies in that the police have to check and confirm if a paying party is attempting to reclaim the betrothal gifts legitimately given to the bride. More importantly, it is very hard to distinguish whether the economic exchanges in a relationship or marriage are legal and proper or for ‘illegal possession,’” a police officer in Guangdong Province who refused to reveal his name told NewsChina.
A former judge who presided over both criminal and civil cases agreed. He told NewsChina on condition of anonymity that professional marital fraud is hard to discern from genuine marriage disputes. Fraudsters are adept in covering their tracks, and this makes it hard for police to investigate. Police and prosecutors are also wary of accepting cases that intersect both criminal and civil affairs.
“We have to distinguish between an [ordinary] dispute and a fraud by using objective evidence, for example, to investigate whether or not the woman has acted this way before and whether she has faked personal information or colluded with a marriage agent,” the judge said.
Lawyer Lin said many suspects go further to attempt to hide fraud. As Qi did to Zeng, they can write an IOU note which makes the money become a case of civil debt, rather than illegal possession, though they might never pay it off.
Even when civil cases reach the courts, it is hard for court investigators to find strong evidence to prove fraud due to the privacy around married life.
In May 2024, Jiang Yongping, another man who sought a flash marriage service from an agent in Jiangxi Province, sued his wife Chen Lina for marital fraud and asked for the return of the betrothal gifts.
“I did receive the betrothal gifts, but I won’t give them back, because it’s not me that wants to divorce,” Chen told NewsChina. Jiang complained that Chen only stayed with him for a couple of weeks before going home and refused to return to him. But Chen countered that Jiang’s family did not get on with her daughter from a previous marriage, and that as Jiang did not have his own apartment, she felt uncomfortable living with his parents and brother.
The court granted Jiang a divorce, but said he needed to bring a separate case over the betrothal gifts, since it involves a third party, the marriage agent.
Dong Juan, a lawyer at Beijing DHH (Guangzhou) Law Firm, told NewsChina that she has searched for cases related to “marital fraud” published by courts nationwide at various levels and found that among 928 civil cases involving marital fraud, only 25.6 percent mentioned “fraud” in the ruling statements.
“The difficulty of gathering [proper] evidence and unclear legal definitions make it hard to deal with marital fraud cases. If prosecutors don’t accept such cases, it’s even harder for a court to move the case from civil to criminal,” Yu Weihua, a former judge of the Supreme People’s Court of Zhejiang Province, told NewsChina.