Streamer Faces Fraud Trial After Fans’ Failed Pursuit
On.cc · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago5 MIN
Summary
Douyin streamer Wei Ying (魏瑩), who has nearly 2 million followers, was prosecuted by prosecutors in Hainan last year on fraud charges tied to virtual gift payments on the platform. Prosecutors alleged she had, since 2019, presented herself as single and unmarried and used ambiguous romantic interactions to induce three married men to spend heavily on virtual gifts. The alleged amount involved was about 25 million yuan, or roughly HK$29 million. Wei’s mother, Ms Shao, rejected the accusation and said Wei never actively fabricated false information about her marital or parental status, and that fan tipping was voluntary
Key Points
- Prosecutors in Hainan alleged Wei Ying used a single, unmarried persona from 2019 onward to build romantic ambiguity with three married victims
- The prosecution said the three men were induced to send high-value virtual gifts, with the alleged total reaching about 25 million yuan
- Ms Shao said Wei had been working in entertainment livestreaming since 2019, was married with a child, and divorced at the end of 2020
- According to her mother, Wei did not disclose her marriage publicly in livestreams because she wanted to protect her young child and personal privacy
- One complainant, married man Xing Moubin from Haikou, began watching Wei in October 2019, pursued her with frequent expensive tips, and kept tipping after learning in 2020 that she was married with a child
Why It Matters
The case turns on whether online gifting in livestreaming can be treated as voluntary spending or as money obtained through deception when intimacy and personal identity are part of the appeal. For Hong Kong readers, it is a reminder that digital tipping, parasocial relationships and private-platform interactions can escalate into major criminal disputes involving large sums and contested expectations