Melbourne's booming tourism industry is the likely reason "professional beggars" targeted the city, and other mainland capitals could also be infiltrated by similar groups, a senior criminologist has said.
Seven members of the alleged syndicate were arrested this week, with police saying the Chinese group were on tourist visas and had transferred Australian dollars into Chinese yuan.
Lennon Chang, a senior criminology lecturer at Monash University, said Melbourne was the latest in a long list of major global cities to encounter fake begging groups.
"As criminologists always say: where there's money, there's crime," Dr Chang told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"It's really difficult for us to know whether they are real ones or fake ones.
"In 2010 there were professional beggars in Dubai, we've seen them in Beijing, we've seen them in Dongguan.
"These are usually the big cities, rich cities with tourists. That's what they are targeting.
"I definitely believe in other Australian cities — in Sydney, in Brisbane — you will see the same thing.
"It's just a matter of when we'll discover it."
Earlier this year the Bangkok Post reported that six Chinese nationals, including three in wheelchairs, were arrested for begging on Bangkok's streets.
Dr Chang said professional begging groups, or "gangs", had existed in China and Taiwan for centuries.
Some overseas criminal groups, he said, used crippled children to lure in money from scam victims.
'I felt pity so I gave her $50'
A Monash University student, who gave his surname as Zhao but did not provide his first name, told the ABC he previously gave money to an elderly beggar on Swanston Street.
The woman spoke to the student in Mandarin, telling him she was in her 80s and needed money to help her son who had a serious disease.
"I felt pity for her, so I gave her $50," Mr Zhao said.
But after chatting with her, Mr Zhao said he felt deceived.
"I didn't quite believe what she said. Her eyes looked like she's lying," he said.
"I also wanted to give her food, but she refused.
"Someone who wanted only money, not food, must be a professional beggar just like the situation in the past in China."
Begging on the streets illegal
News of the arrests in Melbourne prompted a flurry of discussion on Chinese online platforms WeChat and website Our Steps, attracting thousands of comments.
Melbourne's Lord Mayor, Sally Capp, said begging on the streets was illegal.
"It's a really hard message to get out to caring Melburnians to say 'please do not give to beggars'," she said.
"By giving money, not only does it prolong time on the streets it makes them a target for other people."
She urged people concerned about a homeless person to direct them to specialised support services instead of offering them cash.
Some of the city's homeless fear they will be tainted by the negative publicity.
"We'll be judged the same now," one woman told the ABC.
