Beijing, Sep 29 (IANS) China's popular microblog service provider Thursday permanently deleted the account of a self-proclaimed "high-profile" female prostitute who was later discovered by police to be a 31-year-old man seeking online fame.


Sina.com, the company that hosts the popular Weibo microblogging service, also suspended the accounts of six other users for two weeks for spreading rumours regarding the supposed prostitute, reported Xinhua.

Using the pseudonym "Ruoxiaoan1", Lin posted 401 entries on his Weibo account starting from January, fabricating stories about working as a female prostitute in Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang province.

On his microblog, Lin depicted himself as a 22-year-old woman who "accidentally" lost her virginity and became a sex worker. His microblog account was followed by more than 250,000 users, including several prominent Chinese Internet celebrities. Some of his entries were reposted as many as 10,000 times.

Police said Lin took cues from foreign literature while writing his "prostitute diary" in order to attract attention from netizens.

Prostitution is illegal in China.

Lin was fined 500 yuan ($78.5) in accordance with China's Internet regulations for disturbing public order. Lin apologized for his actions, police said.