Defendants confess to a major telecom scam that resulted in the death of a high school graduate in Linyi, Shandong province on Tuesday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Several defendants have confessed to a major telecom scam that resulted in the death of a high school graduate in East China last year.

On Aug 19, 2016, Xu Yuyu,18, died of cardiac arrest after being swindled out of 9,900 yuan ($1,500) — her entire college tuition fund — by a fraudster who said the victim was owed 2,600 yuan in financial aid.

The teenager, who came from a poor family, wired an "activation fee" to a bank account provided by the caller and had expected the money to appear in her student account. It never did.

She called the police in Linyi, Shandong province, after realizing the money was gone, but then suffered a fatal heart attack.

On Tuesday, a group of defendants appeared at Linyi Intermediate People's Court and admitted to cheating victims, including Xu, out of more than 560,000 yuan between November 2015 and August last year by posing as officers from educational, financial and real estate authorities.

One defendant, Chen Wenhui, also pleaded guilty to buying more than 100,000 pieces of personal information online.