Recently, a shocking fraud case occurred in a kindergarten that has been in operation for more than 20 years in Tongxiao Town, Miaoli County, Taiwan Province. The kindergarten, known as the No. 1 kindergarten in the sea line, broke out in the case of the beautiful principal surnamed Chen, who has been teaching for more than 20 years, and frantically absorbed at least NT$60 million (about 13.32 million yuan), and dozens of victims did not realize that they had been deceived until they could not get back the principal and the principal evaporated.
The beautiful principal surnamed Chen took advantage of the trust between parents and students, relatives and friends, as well as the weakness of human nature to attract money, it is said that even the two sisters of the principal surnamed Chen were also cheated, losing tens of millions of yuan, and a victim revealed that it is estimated that the total amount of fraud may exceed 100 million yuan.
Case Brief
According to the victim's parents and students, since 2018, the female principal surnamed Chen has taken advantage of the trust between relatives and friends to attract them to become the largest shareholder of the kindergarten with high dividends as bait.
However, as investors were gradually unable to receive the promised dividends, the director surnamed Chen evaporated from the world, and the victims realized that they had been deceived.
It is understood that although the female principal surnamed Chen is nearly 50 years old, she is well-maintained and has an outstanding appearance, and she has been promoted all the way in her teaching career, and finally took the position of principal. She used this status to declare to parents and students that she wanted to take over the kindergarten and lure them to invest with high returns. Among the victims, some people invested tens of millions of yuan.
The victim pointed out that the female principal surnamed Chen showed them the equity transfer contract with the official seal of the kindergarten, which made them mistakenly believe that it was true. However, when the victim asked for a formal share subscription contract, the director surnamed Chen shirked it for various reasons and eventually lost contact.
Victim interviews
One of the victims, Hua Hua (not her real name), said that she was a student of the first class of the principal, surnamed Chen, and that she had always had a good impression of the teacher. However, when the director surnamed Chen recommended investment to her, although she was hesitant at first, she decided to buy 200,000 yuan of shares after many persuasions and promises from the director surnamed Chen. However, the subsequent bullying incident in the kindergarten and the disappearance of the principal surnamed Chen made her realize that she might have been deceived.
Another victim, Tingting (pseudonym), pointed out that she had known the principal surnamed Chen for at least 10 years, and therefore became best friends with her sister.
The screenshot has been converted from traditional to simplified
After Tingting started "investing" in 2022, she did receive the dividends promised by the director in the early days. Subsequently, the director surnamed Chen proposed a more attractive "short-term share" investment plan to Tingting, although the single investment amount is larger, but the return is also more generous. Tingting did not hesitate to increase her investment and took out four or five hundred thousand yuan.
However, as time passed, the principal surnamed Chen began to delay the payment of interest, and even paid it in installments. Despite Tingting's misgivings, she still chose to trust the principal. In the end, Tingting invested a total of 1.2 million yuan, and after deducting about 500,000 yuan of principal and interest collected before and after, there are still 700,000 yuan that cannot be recovered.
Some victims pointed out that the former principal surnamed Chen even deceived his own sisters
Tingting's vigilance came from a small talk with the sister of the principal surnamed Chen. During the conversation, she was surprised to find that her sister was also a "kindergarten shareholder". After in-depth exchanges between the two sides, it was discovered that the statements that the director surnamed Chen emphasized at the beginning that "you can't tell others" and "only you know" were completely lies.
When Tingting tried to contact the principal surnamed Chen, she found that she could not be reached. At this time, Tingting suddenly realized that the principal surnamed Chen had been using the "Ponzi scheme" to use other people's principal as dividends, until she could not bear the promised dividends, which led to the East Window incident.
The screenshot has been converted from traditional to simplified
Another victim, Jia Jia (pseudonym), revealed to this magazine that she was a parent of a kindergarten student and had known the principal surnamed Chen for six years. In Jiajia's impression, the principal not only takes good care of the children, but also looks beautiful and gentle. Therefore, when the director hoped that she could help with the shares, Jiajia agreed without hesitation. She had subscribed for $4.5 million in shares for a long time, and agreed to receive a dividend of $7,000 every three months.
Jiajia said that in the first two years, everything seemed normal. However, at the end of March 2024, the principal surnamed Chen suddenly approached her and said that there was still a funding gap of 2 million yuan, and hoped that Jiajia could help solve it. Jiajia handed over 1.1 million yuan to the director surnamed Chen on April 2.
Unexpectedly, only two weeks later, the news came out that the director surnamed Chen was suspected of fraud. Jiajia contacted the principal urgently, but was never able to reach her. Afterwards, Jiajia learned that the principal surnamed Chen had resigned from the kindergarten on March 22, 2024. In anger, Jiajia immediately called the police and filed a lawsuit against the kindergarten, the executive director and the principal.
In the face of the accusations, the principal surnamed Chen once posted on Facebook that the incident had nothing to do with the kindergarten, and she was deeply sorry for each victim and the school. She then locked her Facebook account and refused to answer the phone.
The park reacted
It was not until April 15, 2024 that the kindergarten issued an urgent statement, emphasizing that it had no knowledge of the principal surnamed Chen raising funds and soliciting investment in the name of the kindergarten. The school said it had dismissed the principal, surnamed Chen, on March 22 and would file a lawsuit against her to protect the park's reputation.
The kindergarten mentioned in the text
However, the parents of the victims expressed strong dissatisfaction with the kindergarten's approach. They believe that the park has known as early as the end of March 2024, but did not announce the warning to the public at the first time, so that the director surnamed Chen continued to use the identity of the "principal" to defraud. Parents suspect that the school's statement is just a prevarication, otherwise why would the principal surnamed Chen have such a huge funding gap?
In addition, according to the transcript of the conversation presented by the principal surnamed Chen, the victim found that the kindergarten actually had multiple branches. The person in charge of the kindergarten has named two branch principals to be responsible for soliciting funds, but only the principal surnamed Chen is suspected of fraud, and the other branch principal has not been reported to have any fraud.
At present, the whole case is still under investigation, and the police will investigate the legal responsibility of the director surnamed Chen in accordance with the law, and strive to recover the victim's losses.
Write at the end
This fraud case also reminds people once again to remain vigilant and rational in the face of similar investment temptations. At the same time, for kindergartens and other educational institutions, internal management should also be strengthened to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents.
To put it simply, there are several reasons why people are susceptible to scams:
First of all, many people see that they have the opportunity to make easy money, and their hearts are shaken and they want to try it, and it is easy to be deceived at this time.
Second, the scammers will often behave very friendly and sincere, making it seem like they are credible, which makes it easier for the victim to believe what they say.
Also, sometimes when people around us are working on a project that seems to be good, we feel that we should follow up and wonder if it's a scam or not.
In addition, some people don't know much about finance and the Internet, so they are easy to be exploited by scammers.
Finally, scammers also exploit people's fears and anxieties to create a sense of urgency and make decisions before we have time to think them through.