A not-so-smart Chinese man read about the corruption scandal around Shanghai’s Party Secretary Chen Liangyu, and saw an opportunity to make some easy money. Many of the people around Chen have been detained because of financial malversations, and he (probably rightfully) assumed that many more would be involved. He decided to blackmail more than 100 Shanghai government officials, saying that he was part of the Party’s discipline commission and was going to investigate them. He wrote a letter saying that he knew the receiver was involved with the Party Secretary, and asked for money to be transferred into his bank account. And that was of course the weak link. None of the officials transferred money into his account, but the man was caught when he was checking his balance at an ATM near his home. He learned the hard way that you should not mess with the government in China – and certainly never provide them your bank account number.
(source: Shanghai Daily)