Chinese farmers take loans to order brides, but the women run with their money

Beijing: Seven farmers in China took out loans to marry their mail-order brides - all from Vietnam - but their wedded bliss was short lived after the women vanished after just seven days.

Representation pic/Thinkstock

Local authorities said the gullible guys are just the latest victims in a spate of similar crimes.

Websites featuring a host of attractive women who promise good housekeeping and cooking skills, are said to just be a front for greedy agencies who pay the women commission for the number of men they wed.

One of the men, Hu Peng, 46, said he resorted to looking for love on the Internet because of how difficult it is to find a woman the old-fashioned way in his country.

He revealed: "Getting a woman from Vietnam is popular around here. The women are considered faithful, kind, considerate and good housekeepers."

"It is hard to find a Chinese woman - the strict one-child birth policy means that most Chinese families only want a son."
Detailing his own experience of thinking he'd found The One, Peng added: "I found this woman through an agency and I thought she was lovely.

"We married two days after being introduced. I borrowed the money to pay the agency 50,000 RMB (£5,000)."

"For a couple of days everything was blissful. I went out to work and I left her at home, stitching, cleaning, making the evening meal. It was just as I expected things to be. I knew my wife was friendly with the other brides in the area."

"She said that on such-and-such a day they would all be going out for a girls' shopping trip. But it was one she never came home from - and neither did the other brides. It was all a con. They upped sticks and left en-masse."

"My wife took away a lot of my money and the lovely clothes and gifts I had bought for her as a token of my
love as we started our new life together."

Police are now investigating, and said that the runaway brides were "not uncommon".