Deception escalation! Beware of being ＂cut leeks＂ by the ＂blockchain＂ pyramid scheme
What is a "blockchain"? Can it make me make money quickly? With such curiosity and doubts, many people’s money gathered in the wind and eventually became a bubble. Zhang and Zhai, who were accepted by the People’s Procuratorate of Chang ‘an District, organized and led pyramid schemes. The suspects used the guise of "blockchain" to attract participants to obtain qualifications and develop their subordinates by purchasing "blockchain" on the grounds of investment. In just a few months, 9 floors were developed, more than 200 members were developed, and the loss was more than 9 million yuan.
1. A new scam-you can’t miss the slogan of "blockchain"
"If you miss Bitcoin, you can’t miss the blockchain project again. If you don’t have a pool of funds, you can make a profit of 10% of the investment in one week. This is safer than the bank. If you don’t start, it will be too late." One day in June 2019, Zou found a new investment project called "Golden Constellation" while chatting with his friend Wang. Wang’s introduction made him very excited and could not help but be tempted. Zou downloaded the APP on his mobile phone and became a "registered member". According to the regulations, Zou bought the virtual item "Constellation" at the current price, and then sold the "Constellation" at a high price through the trading objects randomly matched by the system in a cycle of 7 days. Not long after, Zou found that the balance on his APP rose rapidly. Click to withdraw cash, and tens of thousands of accounts were easily received.
2. Layers of development-the traditional "pulling people’s heads" way of "new wine in old bottles"
Zhai, who made a profit, was overjoyed, but how can he make more and faster profits? To this end, "Golden Constellation" launched a reward mechanism, that is, developing their own offline members through promotion codes will get 3%-5% of team members’ rewards. In order to increase the proportion of team rewards, Zhai found Zhang, who is doing Internet business, and quickly developed it into his own downline. Zhang took advantage of his own advantages, set up an office with other members, and founded the "Golden Constellation" business school in the name of investment and financial management and internet plus project. He promoted the "Golden Constellation" APP by holding sharing meetings, speeches and video and voice propaganda in WeChat groups for many times, and gradually became the leader of the "Golden Constellation" Shijiazhuang region with high income as bait.
3. It’s a mirage-"pyramid" pyramid scheme finally collapsed.
With the increase of offline members and the increase of transaction rate, the transaction amount of "Constellation" is gradually rising, which leads to the new members of the platform being discouraged. Without the addition of fresh blood, assets are snowballing, and market players simply cannot solve such a huge capital turnover. In order to expand the scale, the platform was upgraded to the blockchain mode of "Mine Exchange" again in an attempt to attract investment with higher returns. However, the good times did not last long. In October 2020, the platform collapsed completely, and members were unable to withdraw cash. The loss amounted to more than 9 million yuan, and the pyramid schemes of Zhai and Zhang were forced to terminate. In December 2022, Chang ‘an District People’s Court sentenced Zhang and others to prison terms ranging from three years and four months to four years and ten months for organizing and leading pyramid schemes. In February, 2023, the People’s Procuratorate of Chang ‘an District sued the co-suspect Zhai Mou to the People’s Court of Chang ‘an District for organizing and leading pyramid selling activities.
4. Penetrating the fog-be alert to the "blockchain" scam behind high returns
The essence of "Golden Constellation" is a Ponzi scheme, which is a variant of pyramid scheme and runs in the form of mutual help pyramid scheme. This scam attracts investors with a high rate of return, emphasizing that "investment must earn and there is no loss", but it avoids talking about the risks of investment. As the support of Constellation trading, the Exchange is developed by the platform itself, with the purpose of turning all assets into virtual currencies such as "air currency" and "pyramid scheme currency", which are not bound to anything of value and are full of security loopholes, black-box operations and insider trading. And under the seemingly profiteering reward policy, its essence is nothing more than pulling new players to fill the huge pit of assets. When the assets cannot be filled, it is the time when the model collapses and collapses.