Just so she will have money to pay for her World Cup gambling debts, a 21-year-old female college student in Shanghai made up a kidnapping story in order to extort money from her parents, the police said today.

The student, identified by the Shanghai police as Xiao Cai, sent a text message to her mother, surnamed Hu, on 22 June, pretending to be a kidnapper who threatened to sell the student to a bar owner if the parents will not transfer 20,000 yuan, around US $3,218.

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The supposed kidnapper instructed the parents to deposit the money into their daughter's account within 24 hours or the student would be pimped.

Hu and her husband tried desperately to contact their daughter but her mobile phone could not contacted, the police said. The father, however, managed to ask the help of a friend in tracing the number of the supposed kidnapper.

"When the parents learned that the mobile number was from Shanghai, they immediately left Wuxi and travelled to Shanghai fearing for the life of their daughter," the police told Shanghai Daily.

In Shanghai, the parents again received a text message instructing them to deliver the 20,000 ransom to the gate of Kunyang Road Primary School located in Minhang District and their daughter will be released the same day. The parents went to the Bijiang Road Police Station to seek assistance.

Police investigators said the female student left her home in Wuxi at around 10 pm on 20 June and told her parents she was visiting a friend who lives in Jiangchuan Road, Shanghai.

 The police immediately visited the location and there found the student watching the FIFA World Cup game alone.

The student admitted that she was the one who sent the text messages to her parents so she will have money to pay for her World Cup gambling debts. She said she had lost 1,000 yuan betting on the World Cup games online.

The police reprimanded the student for her behavior.

TagsChina World Cup, China World Cup Debt, China World Cup Online, China World Cup Betting