Chapter 144 - 144 140 Ordinary Fraud

Words : 1800 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

144: Chapter 140 Ordinary Fraud 144: Chapter 140 Ordinary Fraud Jiang Village hall. Stacks of paper-made gold and silver treasures filled the room, gleaming brightly. It was like the cave of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. Jiang Yuan’s hands were also covered in gold dust, so he could only rub his eyes with the back of his hand. He pulled out the notebook he carried with him. Usually, this notebook was for recording the information of the deceased. Today, he made a slight exception. “Which police officer told you that the other party was a fraudster?” Uncle Yu Shan busily said, “It was our county bureau’s police officer, from the economic crime investigation squad. I also pulled some strings, so I was able to find out the results.” “Results of what?” “Well, the scammer, of course. He swindled money and seduced women, tricking several people out of more than 800,000 yuan,” Uncle Yu Shan said, shaking his head continuously. Jiang Yuan frowned; the amount was indeed significant. If it was purely about swindling money, there should have been a police officer who had conducted some investigation. “How much money is involved on your end?” Jiang Yuan didn’t use the word “scammed” to prevent the situation from becoming a mess if it turned out to be a financial dispute. Uncle Yu Shan looked dejected as he said, “The first time, 180,000 yuan. He took two weeks to pay me back, with an interest of 2,000 yuan. I let it slide since he treated me to a seafood meal, and that seafood meal cost more than 2,000 yuan.” “The second time, I loaned him 300,000 yuan. He paid me back alright, taking a full month, with 3,000 yuan interest.” “The third time I loaned him 600,000 yuan, then he borrowed another 120,000 yuan from me, didn’t pay a cent of interest and never returned the money; he ran away.” Jiang Yuan silently did the math; my goodness, the scammer swindled more than 800,000 yuan in total, and Uncle Yu Shan alone contributed 720,000 yuan, truly the major shareholder. Speaking of money, Uncle Yu Shan’s heart ached, but he continued, “He also deceived several young women.” Uncle Yu Shan, getting more agitated as he spoke, “The owner of the tea shop where I often drink tea got tricked by him, and he also managed to charm two other young girls who came to the tea shop. In addition, a female restaurant owner I know was naively slept with...” Uncle Yu Shan counted on his fingers as he continued, “A beer girl, the owner of a beauty shop who is friends with the restaurant owner, and a school teacher. The most outrageous part is that when he said ‘let’s travel on a whim,’ he met a girl on the road and just slept with her.” As he spoke, the crowd around them grew. Even though they had heard the story several times, when it got to this point, the onlookers still got excited. It was quite a thought, hmph... “What does the girl he traveled with do for a living?” someone curiously asked from the side. “Not working, I guess, she said she was studying for the civil service exams. With such brains, she’s studying for the civil service exams,” Uncle Yu Shan said, his whole body becoming even more agitated, a mix of anger and envy. “As long as he didn’t swindle money from these girls, it’s not illegal,” Jiang Yuan commented sensibly. “He did swindle them,” Uncle Yu Shan asserted, “At least, the restaurant owner was taken for 100,000 yuan by him. He said they were investing in a restaurant together. In which mall, he claimed to have connections to get a good spot and needed to pay a deposit first...” Jiang Yuan slightly furrowed his brow, then asked, “Was your deal with him purely a loan? Did you sign an agreement?” Police cannot get involved in financial disputes; this is specified by the ministry. Uncle Yu Shan hesitated for a few seconds, then said, “We signed an agreement, but he used a fake name. The ID number and name matched, but it wasn’t his own.” Uncle Yu Shan seemed hesitant, as if he felt this made things more difficult. Jiang Yuan, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief, understanding why the police officer had so easily determined it was a scam. From the beginning, it was aimed at deception, straightforward fraud. And the restaurant owner’s involvement likely amounted to contract fraud. Had it been a real person with a real ID, borrowing money for a real project, failing to repay on time could have easily turned into a civil dispute. Civil disputes go to court, followed by execution upon completion of the lawsuit. Although there’s a solution, both the force and the punishment mechanisms are much weaker. However, in civil disputes, there’s usually an executor available for enforcement, even if it’s a debtor-dodging version of an executor. As for the type of scammer Uncle Yu Shan encountered, once they take off, they’re basically untraceable. If they don’t get caught up in another case later on, the likelihood of the scammer being caught is not high. “Give me the contact information for the Economic Crime police; I’ll ask around first.” Jiang Yuan guessed that the police might have other materials, such as statements from other victims and evidence, etc. Uncle Yu Shan took a pen, intending to write in Jiang Yuan’s notebook. Jiang Yuan hastily handed him a piece of gold paper, saying, “Write on this.” Writing on gold paper doesn’t seem right—it’s like writing for the dead,” Uncle Yu Shan didn’t put the pen to paper. Jiang Yuan thought to himself that there weren’t a few dead on his notebook either. Despite saying that, he still found a new piece of paper for Uncle Yu Shan. After Uncle Yu Shan finished writing, Jiang Fuzhen pulled him aside and asked, “Was this scammer handsome?” “How handsome can a 40-year-old man be? The hair that should fall out has fallen out, the skin that should sag has sagged,” Uncle Yu Shan seemed to have his own concerns, he said fiercely, “It’s just a full set of GUCCI, even wearing a Gucci hat, Gucci clothes, shoes—anyone can wear those, right?” Jiang Yuan carefully stored the paper with the Economic Crime police’s phone number and code he had been given. Then he quietly walked away and first made a call to Wei Zhenguo. Economic crimes have their characteristics and particularities; Jiang Yuan wasn’t very familiar with them but understood the gist in his heart. Besides, although forensic doctors are police officers, there is still a gap between the Economic Crime police and the detectives of the Criminal Police team. There’s a saying that all criminal police are one family, and likewise that all technical investigation police are one family. As for Economic Crime, they are competitors amongst themselves. Wei Zhenguo answered Jiang Yuan’s call, heartily saying, “This case, it’s manageable, I’ll ask around for you.” After hanging up, it wasn’t long before he called back. “Definitely a swindler, a case has been filed and the Economic Crime division is working on it, but they haven’t cracked it yet, that’s the situation,” Wei Zhenguo spoke with composure to Jiang Yuan, apparently accustomed to such matters. Jiang Yuan asked, “Can you push it forward?” “I can urge them, but they’ve also got a major case on their hands recently and a backlog of cases. Without direct clues, it’s rather difficult to push forward.” “There are phone numbers, photos, and even fingerprints...” Wei Zhenguo laughed: “The fingerprints collected in the Economic Crime’s cases are also sent to your Criminal Investigation team to queue for processing. If they don’t get a match back, they themselves won’t handle it.” Jiang Yuan came to understand that in the end, the Criminal Investigation team would bear the responsibility. Speaking of which, with several major cases popping up lately and Jiang Yuan’s recent trip to the provincial capital, the Criminal Investigation team was probably overwhelmed. Therefore, Jiang Yuan said, “So, should I go back to the Criminal Investigation team first and match those fingerprints?” “The fingerprints probably won’t be of much help, but you can give it a try. I’ll go in person later to ask around and communicate,” Wei Zhenguo said casually, his ease coming from deep experience and his years working on property-related cases. If it were Jiang Yuan who went, it would be difficult to predict the reception he might receive. Jiang Yuan then continued making golden yuanbao. Jiang Fuzhen and Jiang Yushan came over, also started folding yuanbao and talking. Jiang Yuan briefly explained the situation, and Jiang Yushan expressed understanding. Knowing there was a lead made him happy as he folded the yuanbao. He even discussed with Jiang Fuzhen about making yuanbao for the Great Ancestor together. To Jiang Yushan, a loss of several hundreds of thousands wasn’t unbearable; it was the matter of being deceived that was truly disheartening. As they folded, Jiang Yushan eventually broached the topic, “Swindlers these days are really unavoidable.” Jiang Yuan thus prompted, “How so?” “This person I know, called Peng Haoguang, was truly generous at the tea house, even bought a whole salmon for everyone to enjoy,” Jiang Yushan said with a sigh, “I’ve been around so long and still can’t bring myself to treat others like that.” “But... wasn’t it in a tea house?” Jiang Yuan asked, confused. “Oh, you haven’t been there,” Jiang Yushan smiled briefly then quickly turned serious again, “You see, selling tea in a tea house is a slow process. Regulars like to spend time at the tea house. You drink tea, chat; the regulars converse among themselves, and new customers, if they like, can join the chat or if not, just get ignored.” “I see...” “Yeah, the owner needs to entertain with conversations. Sometimes they’ll buy some snacks; I also like ordering takeout to bring there—mung bean cakes, sushi, and whatnot. But a whole salmon is too expensive, and I don’t even like it,” explained Jiang Yushan. Jiang Yuan understood, “That’s quite a bait he laid out.” “More than that—he also treated us to Haidilao, Little Sheep hotpot, hand-pulled pilaf, foreign liquor, KTV, all sorts of things...” Jiang Yushan sighed, “I actually liked the guy. If he hadn’t left, well, now with this mess, I’m embarrassed to go back to that tea house.” Jiang Yuan: ...

Chapter 144 - 144 140 Ordinary Fraud

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