Three teenagers in Guangxi managed to con parents into giving them tens of thousands of yuan by posing as their children’s schoolteachers in WeChat groups, Quanjiang Evening News reported Thursday.

In November of last year, parents in several provinces began receiving text messages purporting to be from the “head teacher” at their child’s school, asking them to pay a “class fee.” The fake WeChat accounts had the same usernames and profile pictures as the real teachers they were trying to impersonate. The three teenage suspects were arrested on Saturday.

According to police in Zhejiang province, where many of the scam victims live, the suspects had joined 136 WeChat groups for parents using information they stole from the WeChat promotion company they worked for. Though the total amount the teens were able to scam has not been disclosed, they reportedly pocketed over 30,000 yuan ($4,400) from parents in the city of Taizhou alone. (Image: VCG)