Woman gets 20 'boyfriends' to buy her iPhones then sells them to buy a house

SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A woman in China is being praised and scolded on social media after reportedly getting 20 men to buy her iPhones and selling the devices to buy a house.

A blogger using the name Proud Qiaoba was the first to reveal online that a female colleague, dubbed Xiaoli by Chinese media, had found 20 men to be her "boyfriends" in the city of Shenzhen and asked each man to buy her an iPhone 7.

Proud Qiaoba said Xiaoli sold all 20 iPhones to cellphone recycling business Hui Shou Bao for a total of nearly $18,000, which she used to put down a deposit on a house in a rural area.

"Everyone in the office is talking about this now," Proud Qiaoba wrote, "Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public."

The story sparked a mixture of praise, criticism and outright skepticism online, but Hui Shou Bao confirmed the company purchased 20 iPhones from a female client in early October and paid her about $890 for each phone.

The company said the woman did not want to be interviewed.

"Her day-to-day life has been affected [from the local media attention] and she doesn't want the media to continue covering this story," a Hui Shou Bao representative told the BBC, "so she has turned down your interview request."