After losing his money in a pyramid scheme, a man in China tricked his family out of 300,000 yuan by fabricating a story about suffering an injury in a cycling accident.

Zhang Meng was one of two men who lost money in the scam and became so desperate they lied to their families, telling them they had serious injuries and needed cash to pay medical bills.

Fraudulent pyramid schemes involve a large network of people, with those at the top getting big payouts.

New recruits are invited to “invest” money and are expected to recruit other people to do the same.

Zhang concocted a story about rupturing a testicle while riding a bicycle with his girlfriend in a park.

He even fabricated medical reports and ultrasound images to convince his family, who then transferred a large sum of money into his bank account.

His lies were exposed when the family went to visit him in hospital and was told there was no patient by that name. At that point they realised they had been swindled out of more than 300,000 yuan .

“He said he ruptured his testicle, prompting us to transfer hundreds of thousands of yuan. He claimed to be hospitalised, but the hospital had no record of such a patient,” said Zhang Meng’s father, showing his bank statement to reporters from Henan TV station’s City Report.

Similarly, Liu Ming, who was lured into the scheme through an online romance and lost all his money, claimed he had ruptured his spleen and took about 270,000 yuan from his family.

“We guessed he was trapped in a pyramid scheme. We have broken our bank,” Liu’s father and older brother said.

Initially, Liu denied being involved in any fraud.

However, after three hours of talking with anti-pyramid scheme volunteers, he confessed and apologised to his father.

Liu was eventually rescued from the scheme by his family and the volunteers. Zhang was also freed by the pyramid scheme organisation due to the public pressure brought to bear by media coverage.

The incidents have sparked public outrage against the men and also the schemes.

“Deceiving one’s own family for money, where is the morality, where is the humanity? Such a son is not worth keeping. To deceive one’s own father like this, has he ever learned about integrity?” One online observer said.

Another asked: “My goodness, when will these pyramid schemes be totally eradicated?”

 - SCMP