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Chinese dating apps shut after ‘sexy girl’ chats found to be run by robots

Customers paid extra to chat with women online, but found themselves messaging an AI computer programme, crackdown on dating apps fraud discovered

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Customers paid extra to chat with women online, but found themselves messaging an AI computer programme, crackdown on dating apps fraud discovered

Dating apps run by 21 firms in China have been closed down amid allegations of fraud involving hundreds of thousands of customers, according to a newspaper report.

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Some of the apps claimed customers could chat with “sexy girls” online, but clients found themself messaging and receiving answers from artificial intelligence computer programs instead, the New Express reported.

A profile from one of the apps closed down in the crackdown. Photo: 163.com
A profile from one of the apps closed down in the crackdown. Photo: 163.com

Other scams involved customers paying to watch videos with sexual content, but they were unable to load and view the films.

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The department of public security in southern Guangdong province was quoted as saying that the cases involved hundreds of thousands of customers and the fraud amounted to more than 1 billion yuan (US$154 million). More than 600 suspects have been arrested.

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