A man who impersonated a local tax official so he could sell counterfeit accounting books to private companies has been arrested for fraud.

Without a steady job, the man surnamed Wang thought the answer to his financial distress had arrived when he met a man surnamed Xie who sold pirated books on taxation and accounting.

After meeting Xie at a book fair in Chaoyang district, Wang bought sets of pirated books from him for less than 100 yuan ($15.4) and sold them for about 1,500 yuan.

To drive sales, Wang got the name and title of a local tax bureau official when he telephoned his office with the ruse of seeking tax information.

He then masqueraded as the official and advocated the pirated books to financial departments at local companies.

To avoid exposing his real identity, he paid 200 yuan each time to ship the books using a delivery man.

He scammed more than 8,000 yuan from five firms in the past year - until he ran into the real official's wife as he made his pitch to a Fangshan district company in March.

Fangshan prosecutors then approved his arrest.

(Source: China Daily)