A 21-year-old student from Taizhou, China, managed to extort over 60 different hotels for free stays and financial compensation by creating fake hygiene problems and promising to take actions against them.

Jiang, a resident of Taizhou City, in China’s Zhejiang Province, came up with a particularly gross way of funding his traveling habit when he became short on funds. In September of last year, after deciding to put off university enrollment in favor of using the tuition to travel around China, the 21-year-old man quickly saw his funds diminish, which forced him to come up with an alternative way of covering his expenses. After analyzing his expenditures, Jiang realized that hotels were particularly hard on his wallet, so he came up with a creatively devious way of blackmailing hotel staff into giving him accommodation for free.

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For a period of 10 months, Jiang managed to trick at least 63 hotels into letting him stay for free by using a series of meticulous props to make it seem like the room were unhygienic. According to Chinese media, the student had an impressive collection of props, including dead cockroaches, cicadas, strands of hair, and even used condoms, which he planted in the rooms he rented. He later called hotel staff to complain about his “finds” and threaten  to post negative reviews online and ruin their reputation.

“Over a span of 10 months, Jiang frequently stayed at hotels, sometimes checking into three or four different ones in a single day,” an unnamed police officer from Linhai told the South China Morning Post. He would exploit minor flaws or plant insects, bugs, and hair to threaten hotels with complaints or online exposure, demanding free stays or compensation.”

Many of the hotels Jiang targeted preferred to settle with him because they didn’t need the bad publicity, but back in August, a hotel manager finally decided to stand up to him and contacted other hotels in the area about him. many recognized him and confirmed that he had pulled similar tactics when he stayed there, including complaining of dead insects and used condoms.

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“His complaints about supposed bugs and hair in the rooms were alarming. Upon discussing these incidents with several other hotels, we noticed a recurring pattern with this guest,” an anonymous hotel employee said.

After Jiang’s modus operandi was discovered, police contacted hotels across five provinces about the student and found that no less than 63 different hotels had fallen victim to his tricks. He reportedly managed to extort a total of more than 38,000 yuan (US$5,200) from his victims.