There is supposedly no stronger bond in China than that between friends from school days. But for one Nanjing woman recently, this was the furthest thing from her mind when she wrote an IOU for ¥65,000 to a former classmate, using invisible ink.
The unusual case has recently been heard by the People’s Court of Qinhuai District after the victim, a man surnamed Lu, decided to take legal action against his former classmate.
It was back in December, 2019, that the 34-year-old Nanjing woman, surnamed Li, approached Lu, saying that she needed money to do business. Borrowing ¥65,000, Li promised to repay the loan, with interest, the following month.
Li had written the IOU on a piece of paper torn from her notebook, stating the details of the loan and the specific amount. When Lu returned to the note some time after, he found that the text of the IOU had disappeared.
Fortunately, Lu had taken a photo of the IOU, which he submitted to the court as evidence, reports People.cn (人民网). After careful examination of the original document, reporters noted that some dents left on the paper were barely able to be identified.
It was also learned that the note was most likely written with a so-called “eliminator pen” (消字筆), available on all major online shopping platforms, and that text written with such pens will indeed disappear completely. An eliminator pen can cost as little as ¥8.8, which includes 16 refills.
With Li now suspected of committing fraud, the court has transferred the case to the public security organs for investigation.
10 Years behind bars for fraudster who used invisible ink
While this was the first such case heard by the Qinhuai court here in Nanjing, incidents of fraud by invisible ink elsewhere in China are more common than one might think.
In a landmark case in Bozhou City of Anhui Province, a fraudster signed an IOU for ¥1.1 million using invisible ink in June, 2017. Claiming 2 days later that the debt had already been paid, the Bozhou Intermediate People’s Court held that the use of the eliminator pen and subsequent actions constituted fraud and handed down a 10 year prison sentence plus a fine of ¥300,000.
The Nanjinger reminds readers that if accepting a written promise in return for a financial loan, it is also best to retain a photo of the IOU, especially if signed by a former classmate.
