"She dressed simply and looked honest." Single Men in China Are Increasingly Tricked by Fake Brides

One such man is 37-year-old Wang Zhuang. He had almost lost hope of starting a family when he noticed advertisements for marriage agencies. They promised to introduce him to a modest, thrifty, and devoted woman who would be willing to live in his family for life.

The intermediaries convinced Wang that women from Guizhou province were very frugal, managed their households well, and, due to their families' poverty, quickly adapted to a new life after marriage.

Wang traveled to Guiyang, where he began to be set up for meetings. Over several days, he met seven women in special "blind date" rooms. Finally, he liked the eighth one. The man was looking for a woman who had never been married, had no children, and was slightly younger than him.

"Besides, she dressed very simply," he recalls. "She seemed reserved and honest."

They met only four or five times, with each meeting lasting about ten minutes. They were forbidden to exchange phone numbers or contacts. Fines were threatened for violating the rules.

After just two or three days, Wang decided he had found the right woman and agreed to marry. He paid over 300,000 yuan (about $44,490), and with the banquet and other expenses, his total costs amounted to about 400,000-500,000 yuan (from $59,300 to $74,150).

The marriage agency even videotaped and photographed all of this for advertising. In the footage, the couple looked happy: they walked down the red carpet, held hands, and smiled to romantic music.

However, a few months after the wedding, debt collectors started calling Wang. They informed him that his wife had large debts. The man suspected something was wrong and checked her phone. That's how he learned about his wife's true past.

It turned out that she had been married several times, had three children, previously worked as a host in a karaoke bar, had a serious sexually transmitted disease, and significant debts. She also lied about her age.

The woman offered to divorce but refused to return the money received for the marriage. When Wang tried to find the agency through which he had married, it turned out that its office had already closed, and the employees had disappeared.

After this story, Wang himself began filming videos for social media to warn other men about the dangers of similar schemes. Other victims started gathering at his apartment, also trying to find the vanished organizers or get their money back.

The problem has broader demographic causes. For decades, China implemented the "one family, one child" policy. Additionally, historically there was a preference for boys over girls in the country. As a result, the number of Chinese men significantly exceeded the number of women.

Currently, there are approximately 30 million more men than women in China. The situation is particularly difficult in small towns and remote rural areas. There, women can set high demands for potential grooms, knowing that demand for them is high.

Men are often required to own a house, a car, have a stable income, and sometimes even a family business. An additional burden is the traditional "bride price" — money that the groom's family transfers to the woman's family.

Against this backdrop, marriage agencies that promise to find a partner in a few days have rapidly developed. Such marriages are called "rapid" or "flash" marriages.

The marriage brokerage business itself has existed in China for a long time, but in recent years, it has experienced a real boom. Along with this, the number of fraudulent schemes has increased. Chinese state media have already reported that the rapid growth of this sector has led to illegal practices and disorder.

Павялічыць

The authorities have also drawn attention to this problem. From January 2024 to March 2025, the prosecutor's office investigated cases involving 1546 individuals suspected of crimes related to marriage brokerage. A nationwide campaign against fraud in this sector has now begun.

In one case, according to journalists, a marriage agency used karaoke bar employees as "bait." As a result, more than 2.5 million yuan (about $370,750) were swindled from 128 men.

Lawyer Fan Binghe believes that clearer rules for regulating marriage agencies are needed to combat such schemes.

Guiyang has become one of the centers for "flash marriages." Agencies there are located in ordinary buildings near shopping streets. Some of their employees claim that historically there were more women in the region, as local families did not always strictly adhere to the "one-child" policy and continued to have children in the hope of having a son.

Agency representatives say that they are now trying to introduce local women to men from other provinces who have money but cannot find a partner in their own environment. They assure that clients choose their partners themselves and that the main goal is to help people start a family.

One of the agency managers, with whom journalists spoke, however, admitted that they do not officially verify women's backgrounds. According to him, information about them is usually provided by local matchmakers who supposedly know the women and their families well.

He also did not name the exact price of the services, stating that it was confidential information. At the same time, the manager claimed that over 90% of the information provided by clients is true. If fraud is discovered, according to him, the client can demand a refund, and the agency may face legal liability.

However, for people who have lost hundreds of thousands of yuan, such assurances offer little comfort.

Another victim is 59-year-old Xu Rulin from Jiangxi province. He spent almost 500,000 yuan (about $74,150) to find a wife for his son. Together, they traveled more than a thousand kilometers to Guiyang. The son got married just seven days after his first meeting with the woman.

After the marriage registration, the bride began demanding an expensive smartphone, money for her business, as well as a significant sum for a wedding dress and jewelry. She also asked to buy the young couple a house. Xu agreed, wanting the woman to become a full member of their family.

But less than two weeks after the wedding, she fled. Later, she was apprehended by the police, and the husband and wife were able to divorce. According to Xu, the agency owners were also arrested, but he was still in Guiyang, trying to recover at least some of the lost money.

Lawyer Fan Binghe explains that such cases are very difficult to bring to court. Chinese legislation does not have a separate article that directly describes this specific type of marriage fraud.

To initiate a criminal case, the victim must prove that the woman intended to obtain money and defraud the man from the very beginning of the marriage. Suspects, however, often claim that they genuinely wanted to start a family at first, but later discovered incompatibility, conflicts arose, and they decided to divorce. In such cases, it is very difficult to distinguish a genuine family conflict from premeditated fraud.

It is no less difficult to recover money that has been given to fictitious agencies. Such organizations can close and disappear immediately after accumulating a sufficient sum.

Wang managed to recover only part of his money. After what he went through, he is no longer sure if he will ever be able to marry again. He admits that it was already difficult for him to find a partner before, and now he has lost a lot of money and hardly thinks about a new marriage.

His life has effectively been put on hold indefinitely. The man continues to deal with the divorce, collect legal documents, and try to get justice.

Wang's story shows how the combination of demographic imbalance, high demands on grooms, significant marriage expenses, and weak control over marriage agencies creates favorable conditions for fraud. And those who fall into such schemes can lose not only large sums of money but also years of their lives, trust in people, and hope of starting a family.

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