Girl cheats donors of 100,000 yuan after Tianjin blast

A girl holds a flower as she attends a candlelight vigil to mourn the victims of last week's. [Photo/Agencies]

A 20-year old woman who claimed her father had been killed in the Tianjin blasts has been arrested for cheating donors of nearly 100,000 yuan (US$ 15,640).

The woman, surnamed Yang, was held after using a reward function on the Chinese Twitter-like Weibo with a fake post.

Her act, alleged to be fraud, could lead to several years in jail, according to Chinese law.

The woman’s story caused outrage among the public for having taken advantage of donors’ compassion.

She has admitted her guilt.

Suspects should receive tougher punishment if they are found to be using people’s generosity to scam donations given to relieve disasters.

Although possibly an isolated case, society needs to reflect on people’s moral obligations. No one should be accused of donating nothing for relief efforts when faced with disasters, but the bottom line is that we cannot breach the law.

In many cases, criminals have clear ideas of the legal consequences caused by their behavior, but still run the risk of being imprisoned due to lack of legal education and self-control.

The girl’s story tells us that freedom should be limited because there are some things people should not do, such as cheating people out of their money when disaster strikes.

The above is an opinion article on ifeng.com.