Hotel Hook-Up Scammer Jailed After Decade Of Fraud
A Melbourne magistrate has jailed serial Grindr scammer Dong Qiao Li, 32, for three months after hearing he’d been running variations of the same trick for more than a decade and had committed close to $120,000 in fraud. The sentence was handed down at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 5 September 2025. One month covers the latest offending; two months come from a breach of an earlier community corrections order.
— Shaun Favell (@shaun_favell) September 9, 2025
Li matched men on Grindr, met them at city hotels, and after sex encouraged them to shower. While they were in the bathroom, he photographed ID and bank cards, then used the details for flights, hotels and car services. In the most recent matter, four transactions totalling $1,417 were made within days. He was later captured on CCTV checking into a Bondi Beach hotel using the stolen details.
Magistrate Carolyn Burnside called Li’s behaviour “cold and calculating” and said it “robs other people of trust and confidence” in modern app-based dating. She noted he “continues to reoffend in the same way” despite years of opportunities to stop.
At an earlier appearance, the court was initially not given Li’s full interstate history. After journalists raised his record, which includes similar offending across Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, the magistrate sought a complete chronology and prosecutors shifted to pursue prison rather than a non-custodial order.
Coverage by QNews journalist Jordan Hirst flagged the sentencing update; previous reporting by Gay Sydney News and others traced Li’s pattern, including hotel stays, flights and aliases, over many years and multiple states. Images used by outlets have been labelled “supplied”.
Li’s sentence is short, but the court’s remarks are clear: repeating the same deception in app-based meet-ups breaks trust and causes real harm.
This development was first reported by Jordan Hirst at QNews, and mainstream outlets covering the hearings and sentencing.
