Hero Woman Gets 20 Boyfriends To Buy 20 iPhones, Sells Them, Buys House

We can safely say that JoAnne the Scammer has nothing on Xiaoli. That's the name the Chinese media have given to a woman who reportedly got 20 boyfriends to each buy her an iPhone 7, which she then sold and used to make a down payment on a house in the countryside, the BBC reports. A user with the screen name Proud Qiaoba posted a missive on the Tian Ya Yi Du blogging platform detailing how her coworker, dubbed Xiaoli, ran game on the 20 men that assumed they were dating her. Xiaoli, who works in Shenzen, asked each of her 20 boyfriends to buy her a new iPhone. She then sold all the phones on phone recycling site Hui Shou Bao for 120,000 Chinese yuan (about $17,700) and used that money to buy a house. "Everyone in the office is talking about this now," Proud Qiaoba wrote in a blog post translated by the BBC. "Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public." Proud Qiaoba further wrote that "is not from a wealthy family. Her mum is a housewife and her dad is a migrant worker, and she is the oldest daughter. Her parents are getting old and she might be under a lot pressure hoping to buy them a house... But it's still unbelievable that she could use this method!" Normally, we'd take this story with an entire ocean of salt. But it's actually true, according to phone recycling company Hui Shou Bao. "BBC Trending approached Hui Shou Bao and a company spokesperson confirmed that they had indeed purchased 20 iPhones from a female client at the beginning of October and paid 6,000 Chinese yuan (about £725) for each one," the BBC writes. Unfortunately, Xiaoli refused their interview request. Naturally, the story has gone beyond viral on Chinese Twitter equivalent Sina Weibo. The hashtag "20 mobiles for a house" has been used more than 13 million times. Still, there's only one Xiaoli. And she's a damn legend.