He amputates both legs in the hope of getting his insurance jackpot: the failed scam of this 19-year-old student

Il plonge ses jambes dans de la glace carbonique pour se faire amputer et arnaquer son assurance. (Illustration) Unsplash

En janvier 2023, un étudiant taïwanais a tenté d’escroquer les assurances auxquelles il avait souscrit, en s’amputant les deux jambes, sur conseil d’un ami.

From friend to enemy. Two friends from Taiwan set up a scheme to defraud the insurance that one of them had taken out. A 23-year-old young man complied and amputated both legs in dry ice for around ten hours, but nothing happened as planned, reports < em>Business Insider.

1.2 million euros

The two friends wanted to make it look like a nighttime scooter accident. But the doctors at the hospital did not believe that this frostbite came from such an accident, due to the absence of marks on the clothing or the symmetry of the frost.

The police then took up the matter and investigated. "Taiwan is a subtropical region, cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation are rare due to natural climatic conditions", explains a press release from the police.

At the start of 2024, the case takes a new turn: the two friends, Liao and Zhang, have been arrested and are "both charged with fraud and complicity in causing grievous bodily harm", says Slate. If Zhang thought he would win the jackpot, namely the 1.2 million in compensation, his request was indeed rejected.

But the scam doesn’t stop there. Liao had previously been trapped by his student friend, who made him sign a document obliging him to pay him 740,000 euros, because he was drowning in debt following bad investments. nbsp;in cryptocurrency. The so-called "friend" had explained to him that he was also being chased by gangsters.

Similar cases in the United States

In the 50s and 60s, in the United States, several dozen residents of a town in Florida (Vernon), also had amputations to receive a large sum of money. They claimed to have confused their feet with animals when they were protecting their animals.

With these repeated amputations, the town was given a new nickname: "Stumpville".