Desperately Seeking Anna

This is the front page story of Apple Daily today.

(Apple Daily, Xinhua, Dahe, RedNet)

In April 2006, a German man named Milan connected with a Chinese woman named Ah Juan (also known as Anna) over the Internet.  Anna claimed that she was 31-years-old, lived in the city of Shenzhen and was seeking to marry a man between the age of 35 to 70.  She claimed to work in sales, she says that she loves to work and derive enjoyment from it but she is willing to give up work for her family.  Her hobbies are homemaking, reading, travel and shopping.  She hopes that love would be as fresh as her food.

Milan thought that Anna was pretty and refined.  So he added her to his friends' list and expressed his wish to become friends.  Anna responded quickly and they quickly began a communication.

Five months later, Anna asked Milan to come to Shenzhen.  Milan was very happy.  On September 14, 2006, Milan arrived in Shenzhen and checked into a Luowu hotel.  The first thing he did was to call Anna to ask to meet.  At 7pm that evening, the fashionably attired Anna came to meet Milan.  "She was gorgeous and her English was very fluent."  Milan said that Anna was even prettier than in the photographs, and he was instantly captivated.  The first meeting lasted until 9pm when Anna left the hotel.  She said that she would be back the next day.  During that first meeting, Anna acted in a very refined manner.  Milan was impressed by her beauty as well as the traditional female reserve of oriental women with respect to gender relationship.  Milan decided that Anna was just the woman that he wanted.

On the next morning, Anna came back to the hotel as scheduled and she went and sat on Milan's thigh on her own initiative.  After some mild intimacy, Anna said that wanted to show Shenzhen to Milan.  So they went out of the hotel.  That day, Anna took Milan on a shopping spree.  Milan spent all the cash that he had but he continued with using his credit card.  Over the next few days, he spent more than 60,00 yuan for her things.

During those eight days, Milan and Anna were either at the hotel or the shopping malls.  Milan asked Anna why she would not take him to visit a park or see some tourist sites.  Anna became unhappy with that question and said that since makes USD 4,000 per month, she did not care about money and she was only testing his sincerity.  Milan felt guilty about having hurt Anna's feelings through his unwise words and so he did not bring up the subject again.

The couple had their first sexual intercourse on the third day.  Anna was very shy and claimed that this was her first time. When Milan spoke about Anna's behavior, he had to laugh.  Eight days passed quickly.  On the night before Milan left, they had their second sexual intercourse.

Milan said that he heard a woman other than his mother say "I love you" for the first time in his life.  Milan said that although he is almost 60 years old, he is still very naive about love.  When a woman told him that she gave him her virginity and that she loves him, he would believe it.

On September 22, Milan left Shenzhen.  Anna asked him to help her get her visa to come to Germany to get married. But she had a problem in that she has a 1.1 million yuan apartment in Shenzhen for which she made a 100,000 yuan down payment with 1 million yuan left to pay.  If she does not complete her payment, she cannot leave China to marry him in Germany.  At the time, Milan asked to see the apartment title deed.  But Anna said that there is no such document in China.  So Milan asked Anna to provide a bank account number for the lender to which he could wire the money directly.  But Anna said that she had to pay the loan personally in cash every month.  Milan did not understand how things work in China and he was afraid of making Anna angry.  So he accepted what Anna told him.

When Milan returned to Germany, he began the process to get a visa to come and get married.  He either called or sent email to Anna every day.

On October 1, 2006, Anna sent an email: "How are you?  I'm thinking about you and I love you.  Today is a holiday.  I don't know what I'll do.  I'll probably go to the countryside with my business colleagues and relax a bit.  If I can have a wish, I want to wake up every day to the sound of you breathing on my neck and feel the warmth of your lips on my face, the touch of your fingers on my skin and the collective beating of our hearts.  I know that I can never feel the same way with any other man.  I love you a lot!"

Thereafter, Anna addressed Milan as "husband" in her email.  But the emails were evasive about the visa process.  Instead, they kept asking Milan to send money over.  In less than three months' time, Milan wired more than 600,000 yuan to Anna on eleven occasions.

In February this year, Milan wired the final 1,000 euros to Anna's bank account.  Then Anna's attitude changed.  This caused Milan to get worried because he thought that he must have done something wrong to make his "future wife" angry.  He called Anna every day.  Sometimes, she does not pick up the telephone.  Other times, she is distant and cold.  As for his emails, she refused to reply.

Milan began to realized that he might have been conned.  So he wrote a letter to Anna and said that if that is the case, he is going to seek legal assistance.  In November this year, Anna wrote him a letter in which she attached  a letter of herself looking pale and frail.  On one hand, Anna asked Milan not to obtain the service of a lawyer.  On the other hand, she claimed to have leukemia and therefore cannot come to Germany for now.

Milan was afraid, but he was more concerned about Anna's leukemia.  He decided to come to Shenzhen once again and find Anna.  On November 20, Milan came to Shenzhen.  But Anna's telephone was shut off all the time.  Milan stayed in Shenzhen for one week, but he had no luck finding Anna.  So he had to return to Germany.

By this time, Milan felt for sure that he had been conned.  So he decided to pursue action to retrieve the 600,000 yuan that he had sent Anna.

Milan wrote the Germany consulate in Guangzhou and found a local lawyer over the Internet.  The consulate referred the letter to Shenzhen and the Luowu police are investigating the case.

On December 13 this year, Milan returned to Shenzhen and began his quest to track down Anna and retrieve his money.

According to the police, Anna comes from Chongqing and her real name is Dai Hongjuan.  Her apartment in Luowu was sold on November 26 for 700,000 yuan.  The apartment had been owned jointly by an American named John and Dai Hongjuan.  The shares went 99% to John and 1% to Dai, which meant that the loan (if any) was mainly the burden of John and not Dai.  This is pretty much clearly a case of deception.

Milan said, "I will do anything to find Anna.  I hope that the hundreds of millions of Chinese netizens will help me find her.  I don't want her to go to jail.  I only want my money back."  It remains to be seen how the Internet warrant (see screen capture with title: "Citywide warrant for this slut who dates foreigners") will work out this time.