“Sister Hong” Unmasked

Quick answer

Yes – a 38-year-old man in Nanjing was arrested for luring men while dressed as a woman and secretly filming sex with them. No – police have never confirmed the often-quoted “200 victims”. All we know for sure is that the rumour of “over 1 000” partners is false and the real number is still being checked.

The click-bait headline that bent the truth

“200 Männer beim Sex reingelegt” screamed the German tabloid piece. The story was sensational enough on its own: wigs, beauty filters, hush-hush hook-ups and a pay-per-view porn ring.
But when we dug into Chinese police bulletins, Reuters cables and local media, one detail refused to line up: the body-count.

The Nanjing police statement never gives a figure. It only says the viral claim of more than 1 000 victims is “untrue”. (Source: Jiangning Public Security Bureau notice, 8 July 2025)

So where did “200+” come from? Some outlets quote “237 verified clips”, others simply repeat “hundreds”. None cite an official document. For now, the number floats in the rumour mill.

What is verified – the hard facts

What remains murky

1. Number of victims – police say only that “>1 000” is wrong. Everything else is guesswork.
2. Who blew the whistle – a 25-year-old fitness coach publicly claimed to be in one leaked clip and did file a report, but officials haven’t confirmed he was the very first complainant.
3. How much money changed hands – media talk of 150-yuan subscription fees, but no court documents yet.

How the scheme allegedly worked – a step-by-step

1. Online persona: Jiao created the female alter ego “红姐 / Sister Hong”, complete with soft-pitched voice and flawlessly filtered selfies.
2. Hook-ups: Dates were arranged on social media and dating apps. The men thought they were meeting a woman.
3. Hidden cameras: Once intimacy began, devices kept rolling – totally without consent, investigators say.
4. Paywall porn: Short clips were sold in private chat groups for small fees, turning dozens (or hundreds) of victims into unwitting content.

(Think of it as OnlyFans meets “Catfish” – but with crime charges attached.)

Why Chinese law takes this seriously

Many readers assume China’s 2021 PIPL created a brand-new offence. In reality:

• Criminal Law Art. 364 has long outlawed “spreading obscene materials”.
• PIPL (2021) toughened penalties for leaking personal data – including images of a sexual nature.

Together they make non-consensual porn a double strike: privacy breach + obscene-material distribution.

What happens next?

Police say the probe is “ongoing”. If prosecutors pursue both privacy and obscenity charges, Jiao could face:

• up to three years (or more) for obscene distribution,
• heavy fines under PIPL,
• civil suits from any confirmed victims.

The bigger picture: dating apps, deepfakes and digital consent

This case collides with two 21st-century headaches:

1. Face-altering tech – Beauty filters and voice changers lower the bar for identity fraud.
2. Instant monetisation – Telegram-style pay-groups let explicit clips go global in seconds.

China is hardly alone. From South Korea’s spy-cam epidemic to Western “revenge-porn” cases, privacy laws are playing catch-up with pocket-size filmmaking tools.

Bottom line

A cross-dressing con artist did get caught. He definitely filmed men without permission and sold the footage.
What we don’t know (yet) is how many fell for “Sister Hong” – 50, 200, 237, or some other number. Until the indictment lands, treat any precise victim tally as just another internet rumour.

Truth, like a good disguise, sometimes peels off in layers.