A woman in China who fraudulently juggled separate jobs with 16 different companies simultaneously, amassing enough cash to buy a villa in Shanghai, was arrested during a job interview, reports South China Morning Post. The ‘wage cheater’ Guan Yue’s scam came to an end when she was arrested during a job interview, a typical situation where she would take photos and share them on work group chats to trick her multiple employers into thinking that she was meeting with clients. To keep track of her intricate racket, Guan kept detailed paper records of essential information, including start dates, job titles and bank account numbers for each of her positions.

Yue never turned down potential job opportunities, and when overwhelmed, sold job offers to others and pocketed a commission. Both Yue and her husband, Chen Qiang, were adept at exploiting rules and laws. A measure of their criminal skills is evidenced by the fact that Qiang initiated 13 arbitration cases and won them all. Over a period of three years, the couple amassed sufficient wealth to afford a villa in the Baoshan district of Shanghai. It was not reported how much they paid for the property. However, their scheme was exposed in January 2023 when one of the employers, tech company owner Liu Jian, discovered paperwork discrepancies.

In October 2022, the tech company hired a core team leader and seven other individuals, all of whom had impressive CVs and extensive experience. However, despite the fact that the core leader got a monthly salary of approximately CNY 20,000 (approximately USD 2,740) and the rest about half that, they failed to deliver results and had their contracts terminated. It was shortly after this that Jian discovered the paperwork discrepancies and reported the matter to the police.

An investigation discovered a flow of dodgy funds listed as salaries, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of Chinese yuan, into different bank accounts. Eventually, 53 members of Yue’s wage cheating criminal group were arrested. The total amount involved in the case exceeded CNY 50 million (USD 6.8 million).