Chinese woman cons 31 companies into paying her without working

Tao Xi was put under investigation for fraud, and she was then sentenced to three years in jail on April 3, The Paper reported. However, her sentence was then suspended, and she was put on probation for four years while also being fined ¥50,000 (US$6,900).

Police said that Tao, born in 1989, is a member of a group that commits salary fraud.

Since November 2020, she has forged documents regarding her education and work experience, while also lying that she possessed a long list of high-value customers in order to get hired by numerous employers at the same time, according to information revealed at the trial, The Paper reported.

After joining a company, Tao would build her image by faking her attendance and reports, fabricating stories of meeting customers, even hiring people to act as customers. That way, Tao continued to earn her salaries at different companies without actually contributing anything, according to investigators.

Tao said such ruses at one point enabled her to work part-time for nine companies within a single month. Her combined salaries from those employers amounted to about ¥30,000 ($4,147) in total, investigators said.

Tao was arrested in March last year, and admitted to having conned 31 employers, earning herself over ¥290,000 worth of false-pretense salaries.

Another Chinese woman also made headlines last September for using similar tricks to hold 16 jobs at once over three years and earn enough money to buy a villa in Shanghai.

The woman, identified as Guan Yue, was caught during a job interview she attended, the South China Morning Post.