Schoolgirl Dies of Heart Attack after Falling Prey to A Phone Scam that Syphoned Her Tuition Money

(Beijing) – The death of a rural schoolgirl from heart failure after she was swindled out of 9,900 yuan by a fraudster claiming to be a financial aid official at the local education bureau, has shed light on a widespread form of phone scamming targeting students and raised questions about lapses in safeguarding private information.

Xu Yuyu, 19, was enrolled as an incoming freshman at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Her family had pinched and scraped together 10,000 yuan for her first semester tuition and expenses, and Xu had applied for a grant reserved for underprivileged students at the local education bureau in Linyi, in the eastern province of Shandong, on August 17, her father Xu Lianbin told Caixin.