Man uses ‘dirty condoms, dead cockroaches’ to scam 63 hotels for free stay and compensation | Trending

A man in China was arrested by the police after he carried out a scheme to cheat hotels and blackmail them into giving him compensation in the form of not just a free stay, but also money. The man allegedly came up with this scheme after he ran out of funds he needed to enroll in college.

How did the man run the scam?

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP)the 21-year-old man, known by his surname Jiang, would check into hotels and stage his props, which included cicadas, dead cockroaches, used condoms and strands of hair. He would then complain about the hotel’s unsanitary conditions and use the opportunity to cheat them out of money or free items.

“Over a 10-month period, Jiang frequently stayed at hotels, sometimes checking into three or four different ones in a single day. He would exploit minor blemishes or plant insects, bugs and hair to threaten hotels with complaints or online exposure and demand free accommodation or compensation,” a police officer from Linhai in Zhejiang told the magazine.

How was he caught?

He managed to defraud several hotels until one of them reported him to the police after he tried to blackmail them with claims of hygiene problems. An anonymous source who works with one of the hotels the man defrauded reportedly told the outlet that the companies began communicating with themselves and identified Jiang as a customer who had raised similar complaints during his stays at various locations.

“His complaints about suspected bugs and hair in the rooms were alarming. After discussing these incidents with several other hotels, we noticed a recurring pattern with this guest,” staff said.

Preliminary investigation following Jiang’s arrest from a local hotel revealed 23 packages containing items he used to stage his scam. Further investigation revealed that since last year he has stayed at over 300 hotels and successfully defrauded 63 of those establishments. To date, he has extorted a total of $5,200.