Police in Guangzhou's Liwan district detained a man and eight women after they recently busted a major marriage fraud gang in the Guangdong provincial capital, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The gang is suspected of defrauding more than 300 single men through fake "lonely hearts" advertisements in local newspapers, and on television and radio stations over the past eight years.

The female suspects, all aged between 30 and 40 years old, pretended to be single women seeking spouses. All the suspects are unemployed and only graduated from junior high school.

The men being defrauded were asked to help the women pay medical expenses, buy houses and purchase other expensive items after they began dating.

Most of the victims are construction workers, couriers, porters or waiters, with some having been defrauded for as long as eight years.

Some men even entrusted their bank account cards to their "girlfriend" after they began dating.