Four con artists who impersonated celebrities are given sentences of between eight months and three years for scamming young fans. Photo: Sina News

Four scam artists who impersonated pop stars and traded messages with two primary school students on social media for months were found guilty of swindling the girls out of 80,000 yuan ($11,400). 

One of the girl's father discovered his daughter had transferred money multiple times to a member of the fake fan club on WeChat, after he noticed the dwindling balance of his bank account.  His daughter had logged on to his WeChat to make the transfers. 

The imposters posed as Jackson Yee, a Chinese pop star who has more than 80 million followers on his authentic social media, and convinced the girl to send money under a variety of pretexts. 

The girl was promised she would receive triple the amount of money  she transferred to the group. She was also charged a series of bogus processing and service fees. 

The scammers were sentenced to prison terms of between eight months and three years.

While netizens condemned the celebrity imposters, they also wondered how they got the two children to give them so much money. "I bet I am not the only one who is shocked by how rich these kids are," wrote a netizen.