Three suspects have been caught for running an alleged film investment scam, Shanghai police said yesterday.

Some 260 investors around the country fell victim and lost over 45 million yuan (US$6.6 million), police said.

The suspects allegedly fabricated the production cost of the film and the expected box office results to attract investors, but the film fell far short of expectations.

Police started their investigation in March after a man surnamed He reported that he invested 500,000 yuan in the film through a company but only got 13,000 back.

He said the company claimed the film had a production cost of 260 million yuan and would make 2 billion yuan at the box office, and that every 1 million yuan invested will yield 3.6 million yuan for the investor.

However, the film, screened in 2019, only made 63 million yuan at the box office, and He later found out that there were a lot of other investors in the project like him.