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Twins in China switched passports more than 30 times to travel abroad, according to Harbin Daily.
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The Zhou sisters have been arrested and are now under investigation.
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Before getting caught, the twins flew each other’s passports to Japan, Russia and Thailand.
According to the Chinese news channel Harbin Daily, two twin sisters in China changed their passports and identities more than 30 times to travel abroad before being caught.
The Zhou sisters, who are from the northern Chinese city of Harbin, have been arrested and are now under investigation, the outlet reported Monday, citing local police.
It all started when one of the sisters, Hong (a pseudonym issued by the authorities), wanted to travel to Japan to be with her Japanese husband. However, her visa application for the country had been repeatedly rejected, according to the outlet.
However, her twin sister Wei (also a pseudonym) had a valid Japanese visa, so Hong decided to take advantage of their similar physical appearance and borrowed Wei’s passport for her trip, per Harbin Daily. Hong later used the same method to travel between China, Japan and Russia at least 30 times, the outlet said, citing police.
Meanwhile, Wei used Hong’s passport to travel to Thailand and “other countries” four times, according to the outlet.
Chinese authorities discovered the scam earlier this year, although it’s unclear how the ruse eventually came to light, the outlet reported. Both sisters returned to China in May, according to the outlet.
The story exploded on Chinese social media this week, with the hashtag “twins have exchanged identities and gone abroad more than 30 times” garnering more than 360 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
When they compared the story to a scripted movie, some Weibo users were impressed by how the twins managed to mislead immigration officials on so many occasions.
“I always dreamed that my twin sister would take my school exams in my place,” one user joked.
Many people also question the apparent lack of fingerprint checks at borders. “Even the most advanced technology hasn’t discovered this. It’s unbelievable,” commented one user.
It is perhaps even more incredible how the ruse happened in China, where the movements of citizens are closely monitored. In 2018, Chinese state media outlet Peoples Daily said: that the government’s facial recognition technology was able to scan the faces of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens in just one second.
The country’s strict border control measures have also been further tightened in recent months following the spread of several Covid outbreaks across the country.
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