A Chinese woman has been charged with fraud after it was revealed that she was employed by 16 different companies at the same time, but she never really showed up for work at any of them.

The woman, identified as Guan Yue (pseudonym) by Chinese media, had reportedly been juggling over a dozen employers and collecting paychecks for at least three years, without actually getting any work done for any of them. She and her husband, who is also a suspect in this case, allegedly kept a very tight record of employers, her exact role at each company, the date she had started working for each of them, and the bank account details provided for the woman’s monthly salary. Guan Yue would constantly be looking for new employers, and when going to new job interviews, she would take photos and send them to current employers as proof that she was meeting with clients. Believe it or not, the fraud worked flawlessly for years, allowing Guan Yue to buy an expensive apartment in Shanghai.

Guan Yue was so busy in her constant search for corporate employment, that whenever she had multiple job interviews lined up at the same time, she would pass them on to other people, in exchange for commissions. However, she did keep most of the jobs for herself, always finding other companies to work for whenever she got fired for lack of results.

Unfortunately, the fraudster’s scheme started falling apart this past January, when one of her former employers found a resignation letter from Guan Yue on an online work group. Liu Jian, the owner of a tech company, had hired Yue and seven other associates in sales positions but fired them after a three-month probation period because they hadn’t generated a single sale.

Some time later, the woman made the mistake of sending her resignation letter to another company and several online work groups. Jian was a member of one of these groups and realized that Guan Yue had been working for another company while in a full-time position at his tech firm. After doing a bit of investigating himself, Liu Jian contacted the police about the former employee.

Liu Jian’s actions set in motion the exposure of a massive fraud that went back at least three years and exceeded 50 million yuan. Ironically, Guan Yue was arrested right in the middle of an interview for a new job. She had 16 jobs at the time of her arrest but wasn’t putting in any actual work for any of them. She was getting monthly paychecks though, as well as commissions from associates she had helped get hired.

Yue, her husband, and more than 50 accomplices involved in the salary fraud were arrested. According to Chinese media, this kind of labor fraud is a massive problem in China, with hundreds of specialized groups reportedly taking on jobs from multiple employers. They are trained interviewees, have polished résumés, but are only interested in free paychecks.

Oddity Central