Four Africans have been accused of pretending to be gold ore mine operators to sell fake gold to a Foshan man for 200,000 RMB, Nanfang Daily reports.  They were arrested after an investigation led by Shenzhen Railway Police.

The fourth was arrested Oct. 28 after a police hunt that had earlier caught the other three.

In May this year, the unidentified Foshan man found a Malian contact online who claimed to know the owner of a mine in Africa who could help transport cheap gold to China.

They made a verbal agreement, and on June 27 the man paid the Malian and three men who claimed to be mine operators 200,000 RMB for what he thought was 1 kg of gold.

Only after the men had left did he discover that it was not real gold. He called police and an investigation that involved police in Shenzhen, Foshan, and Guangzhou identified the men using security camera footage.

This is unlikely to help the already strained relations between Africans and locals in the PRD. The Nanfang reported this summer that riots had erupted in Guangzhou after an African man died in police custody.

The investigation is ongoing.