A gang of scammers who enticed victims with female company on the Internet before luring them to a city bar, where they were charged exorbitantly for drinks, stood trial yesterday.

The group of 10 women and two men - the youngest aged 17 and the oldest 27 - allegedly used a bar called Iron and Fish, situated in Beijing's Houhai area, as their base to dupe unassuming men, hoping to meet up with their pretty "chat buddies", the Xicheng court heard yesterday.

Since March, the gang has duped 33 men of about 100,000 yuan (US$142,000), the court heard.

The female swindlers of the group allegedly identified their male victims by first chatting with them online.

Li Chunjia, 24, one of the ten females in the group, would then pass on the personal information of the victim to any of the other nine girls, who would promise to meet him at the Houhai bar, the procuratorate said.

Once at the bar, conversing face-to-face with his female "chat friend", the victim would allegedly be charged anywhere between 200 yuan and 20,000 yuan for drinks.

Zhao Yucai, 24, one of the two men in the gang, has been accused of being the leader of the ring, "in charge of paying the girls their salaries and maintaining the discipline" between them, it said.

"I taught them how to talk to the victims and what to order from the menu," Zhao said in court.

Wang Haiyang, 21, the second man of the group, was allegedly the bodyguard, whose role would come into play if any of the girls ran into trouble with their victims.

The court has yet to reach a verdict.

(China Daily December 31, 2008)