• Man duped in trading app scam

• Gold hidden in chili peppers to fund account

A Chinese man sparked online ridicule after hiding two gold bars inside chili peppers and sending them to another province as part of a scam to fund his trading app account.

The incident recently occurred in Jinnan, Tianjin, northern China, when police uncovered a fraud scheme targeting an elderly man.

Li Ruifang, from the Shuanglin Police Center, received a fraud alert indicating that an elderly man named Zhao might be contacted by scammers.

Li quickly apprehended Zhao and brought him in for questioning.

Zhao said: "I wasn’t scammed. I was just talking with a friend about stocks," and refused to disclose additional details about his "investments."

The police changed their approach and spoke to him as if they were fellow "investors," explaining legitimate investment procedures and revealing common scam tactics.

After about two hours of conversation, Zhao admitted that he had seen an advertisement for "profitable stock tips" on a short video platform. Scanning a QR code, he downloaded a trading app.

Guided by individuals he believed to be "experts," he was tricked into buying gold and sending it under the pretense that it would be "converted into cash."

When first asked about the package contents, Zhao claimed it was "food for a friend."

Eventually, he admitted to hiding two gold bars, each weighing 30 grams, inside chili peppers as instructed by the scammers.

The police told him: "If you still don’t believe this is a scam, try withdrawing your money from the app!"

Zhao attempted several times and failed, realizing he had fallen victim to fraud.

Police then contacted the shipping company to urgently intercept the parcel. It was recovered, rescheduled for delivery, and contained the two gold bars.

The police returned the gold bars to Zhao and helped him recover 34,000 Chinese yuan (about 5,000 USD).