A number of citizens in eastern China have been the victims of an audacious swindle which lost them nearly 200 million yuan (£20 million).
A fictitious bank which was made to look like a genuine one accepted almost 200 million yuan in deposits, mostly from small business owners.
With uniformed tellers, computer screens with financial information and forged credentials, the premises looked real but had been licensed as an agricultural consultancy rather than a bank.
The Nanjing Mou Village Economic Cooperation Unit managed to operate for about one year before a customer alerted the police who have now closed the operation and arrested four managers and one legal representative.
The victims were promised high interest rates. One had been promised 2% interest each week but this stopped after four weeks. When the operation refused to return his money, he reported it to the police.
Large-scale scams are not new in China. Fake Apple stores have been opened where staff believed they were hired by the real company, and a fake university had students attending for four years.
