Soldiers of the PLA's chemical-defence unit detect toxic substances at the Tianjin blast site in Binhai New Area on Aug. 24, 2015. (Photo : Getty Images)
A 19-year-old Chinese teenager has been sentenced to three years in prison after she was discovered falsely raising funds, citing loss of her relatives in the Tianjin blasts that shook China last year.
Yang Cailan was successful in raising 96,576 yuan ($14,740) online after she wrote three fake stories on Sina Weibo of how her family went missing on Aug 13.
As a result, she had to appear before Fangchenggang District People's Court, where she was fined 8,000 yuan ($1,221) and the authorities seized her cell phone, reported Ecns.cn.
Within a day's time, Chang's account was closed by Sina Weibo and all the money was processed for refund after online sleuths found her fraud. She was able to garner support and a wave of sympathy from 3,739 netizens with a total of 3,856 donations.
On Sina Weibo, she mentioned about losing her father and mother following the Tianjin accident in one of her posts.
"I am so scared. My dad worked nearby. He didn't answer his phone when I called him just now. Neither did anyone from his company. I am so frightened at home," the post read as quoted by South China Morning Post.
Immediately after her account was frozen, Yang and one of her friends visited the local police, where she informed that her Sina Wiebo account was hacked and false stories of her family were posted. However, she was found guilty of owning the account after authorities investigated her cell phone.
On the night of Aug. 12, a series of massive explosions took place in the northern city of Tianjin that left almost 139 people dead and a hundred more injured. The port area of the city of was left in ruins with authorities declaring it to be China's worst industrial disaster in years.
