Liang Yiwen/Shanghai Daily news

Pudong police said yesterday that they busted a gang of 18 people who pretended to be plainclothes cops to extort money from the clients of prostitutes.

In one case, four men got into the car of a man who had just left a hairdressing salon after having a foot massage. They told the man, surnamed Wang, they were plainclothes police and accused him of having sex with a prostitute at the hairdressing salon. They said Wang would have to pay a fine or they would take him to the police station.