Text | Ringer Ratchet
In the currency circle, the capital market that everyone is calling for is gradually "out of the circle".
The most recent ones they are targeting are students.
Recently, a number of students told a blockchain that they were entrapped by a fund called "Star Things" and their losses ranged from several hundred to several thousand yuan. Some people estimate that the victims of this fund may have exceeded 100,000 people.
According to the characteristics of students, this fund board has built itself into a so-called "learning platform", but its gameplay is a typical fund mode: buy learning materials and get "star coins", and hold the latter to get high rewards. Amount of dividends, "20 days to pay back."
Its harvesting method is also a typical method of funds: the promised dividends have shrunk sharply, and the cheated students lost their money.
What's worse is that the trader even threatened the students by "sending a lawyer's letter" so that they would not dare to call the police.
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Harvest students
Who are the most typical victims in a fund case?
They are middle-aged and elderly people who lack anti-fraud awareness, currency speculators who dream of getting rich overnight, and professional fund players who lick their blood. Rich, adventurous, and easy to be fooled, in them, the three must account for two.
Due to limited financial resources, students generally seldom become the target of harvesting funds. But recently, there have been a number of funds that are dedicated to harvesting student groups.
"I am a student, and I was defrauded of more than 300 yuan by a fund called 'Star Things'." Recently, a reader broke the news to a blockchain.
A blockchain survey found that this fund called "Star Things" has recently been harvesting student groups frantically, and the victims may have exceeded 100,000.
This fund plate claims to be a learning and educational software, with "self-study education" as its selling point. Users can purchase various learning courses in the APP, such as introductory Japanese, magic skills, WeChat applet development, etc. According to its official website, the APP has been downloaded by more than 300,000 people.
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Star Things APP
In the Star Things APP, there will be a line of small words below each learning material-"Gift X star coins".
Star currency is a virtual currency issued by Star Things. It cannot be freely traded or given away, and the only way to get it is to get it as a gift when purchasing learning materials.
On the Star Things APP, if you purchase learning materials at different prices, you will receive different amounts of Star Coins. The more expensive the material, the more stars you will get. In addition, new users can also get star coins when they register and sign in.
"If you buy a learning package priced at 19 yuan, you will get 5 star coins, and if you buy a learning package at 70 yuan, you can get 20 star coins." A victim of Star Things said, "Besides, new user registration can Get 2 star coins, and you can get 0.3 star coins for daily sign-in."
And the official promotion of Star Things, as long as you hold Star Coins, you can get cash dividends.
"The platform takes out a part of the profits (50%-80%) every day to reward users for sharing, and the sharing ratio is evenly distributed according to the number of star coins. The more star coins, the higher the profit sharing reward." The official said.
Take the learning package with a price tag of 19 yuan as an example, players can get 5 star coins after purchasing. At the beginning of May, each star coin can be distributed as a dividend of 0.19 yuan per day, which can be paid back in 20 days.
Based on this calculation, the annualized rate of return of Star Things is as high as 1825%.
If players are willing to promote and attract people for star things, they can also get extra star coins as rewards.
"If you introduce a downline, you can also get 20% of the downline's star coins. In this way, your daily dividends will be greatly increased." A star player said to a blockchain.
Crash and run
Crash and run
As long as it is a fund market, there will always be a moment of collapse. Star things are no exception.
"On May 8th, Star Things announced maintenance for 5 days. You can't log in, and you can't see your own purchase records." Xiao Zhang, a victim of Star Things and a college student, told Yiben Blockchain.
On May 12th, the maintenance of the star transaction was completed on time, and the dividend income of the star coin was greatly reduced.
In the past, the daily dividend of a star coin was 0.19 yuan. After the maintenance was completed, this figure dropped to 0.002 yuan, which was one percent of the original.
This means that the payback cycle of star things has been extended from the original 20 days to 1900 days.
"The star thing has run away!" Only then did Xiao Zhang realize this.
He said that he invested more than 400 yuan in star things. "The withdrawal threshold of the platform is 20 yuan. I used to be able to withdraw once a day, but now there is no other way."
On the Star Things APP, learning materials cannot be refunded, and Star Coins cannot be traded freely. This means that as long as the dividends drop sharply, the players will lose everything.
In order to appease players' emotions, Star Things has recently launched the "Star Token Exchange" function, claiming that players can exchange various physical and virtual goods with Star Tokens. For example, 300 star coins can be exchanged for a year of Tencent video membership, and 2000 star coins can be exchanged for a Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner.
But Xiao Zhang said it was nothing more than a hoax. "All commodity inventory is 0, and it cannot be exchanged at all."
Today, Star Matters is destroying evidence and deleting all traces related to the fund disk.
For example, on the purchase page of star items, the number of star coins given in red letters used to be displayed, but now the reminder has disappeared.
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The original "Star Things Official" Weibo
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"Star Things Official" Weibo previously released promotional pictures
Even the learning materials purchased by players began to "disappear". College student Xiao Jia told Yiben Blockchain that Xingshi shared learning materials with him through Baidu Netdisk. But now, Star Things has canceled the sharing, and the link to the online disk is no longer valid.
"Now we can't get in touch with Xingwu at all, the customer service numbers can't be reached, and QQ can't be reached." Xiao Jia said.
A block chain found that after May 7, the WeChat public account "Star Things Best" of Star Things also stopped updating.
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infiltrate campus
The biggest difference between the star thing and the regular fund project is its harvesting object.
Most of its victims are students. A block chain has contacted nearly ten star victims. All but one described themselves as students.
"The star thing rights protection group I belong to has hundreds of people, and most of them are students, from the third year of junior high school to the third year of junior high school." Xiao Jia said.
How did the funds target these students? The answer is "online earning platform" (online earning platform).
The star victim, Xiao Zhang, was studying at a university in Beijing. He earned more than 1,000 yuan a month for living expenses and nearly 1,000 yuan for part-time jobs at school. After the epidemic, he could only take classes online at home. "The part-time job income is gone, but Huabei must be paid back. I have no choice but to find a part-time job online." He said.
On an online earning platform, Xiao Zhang discovered the star thing and joined it.
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Advertisements for star things on part-time platforms
And in various online earning QQ groups and WeChat groups, information about such projects emerges endlessly.
"I just saw the advertisement of Star Things in a QQ part-time job group. There are people posting their advertisements in all part-time job groups and campus groups." Xiao Jia said.
What is even more incredible is that some funds have entered the campus, setting up stalls around the campus, distributing leaflets, and even going deep into the dormitory to advertise, inviting students to scan the code to register for the APP by sending small gifts. Some college students who are not deeply involved in the world are hooked.
After the star thing ran away, some star thing imitations, such as "co-founder", "star academy" and "xueba block chain", were also born recently. Their harvest targets are still students.
Taking co-founding as an example, this project, like Star Things, claims to be a "self-learning platform" that can "learn and make money at the same time". Its model is exactly the same as that of the star thing, the only difference is that the "star coins" are replaced with "red diamonds". The dividend of a red diamond is still 0.19 yuan.
"In order to harvest students, projects such as star things have many differences in model from the traditional fund market." A Dong, a senior fund player, said, "First of all, it is under the banner of a learning platform, and secondly, it only costs 19 yuan. The ultra-low barriers to entry for investment, and finally, the threats and intimidation tactics.”
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Xingshi APP intimidates and mocks players with official announcements
"Even the students' money is not spared. It is a shame to swindle people after cheating money." A Dong said, "Traders are betting that the students are cheated of less money, and they are too timid to call the police and defend their rights. "
In fact, some students were confused by the words of the trader and gave up continuing to defend their rights.
"The official said that the Star Coin is just a marketing tool, and there is no promise of income or capital preservation. I was only cheated of a few hundred yuan. I don't know if I can call the police." Xiao Zhang said.
A blockchain survey found that the official star thing did not give a fixed amount of investment and return commitments to the star coin. But this may not be a "golden medal for avoiding death" for traders to get away with it.
"The official promise to distribute 50%-80% of the daily profit as a dividend can be regarded as a kind of agreement or promise." Lawyer Zhang Feng, a partner of Wanshang Tianqin Law Firm, said to a blockchain, "Leaving aside Other factors, just for that matter, if it doesn't operate to that standard, it could be fraudulent."
In addition, Star Things may also be involved in fund-raising fraud and pyramid schemes.
Who is the mastermind behind the stars?
A block chain found that Star Things had been put on the shelves of major APP stores. The main company behind it was "Fujian Qianlian Network Technology Co., Ltd.", and the legal representative and sole shareholder was Tang Kaiyue.
The victims of Star Things told a blockchain that the Alipay account of Star Things belonged to "Dongguan Duobaohe Jewelry Co., Ltd." This company has a supervisor named Tang Kaijun, who is only one word different from Tang Kaiyue.
"Fujian Qianlian is also the main operator of another funded project 'Pipi Orchard'." A Dong said, "This project was launched last year, but it has already collapsed."
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Fujian Qianlian certified account taunts victims on Tianyancha
"Using real corporate information to do fraudulent business, this group of people is really courageous." An economic investigation policeman said to a blockchain.
He suggested that victims of star things all over the country call 110 as soon as possible to report to the police that Fujian Qianlian is suspected of fraud.
Only in this way can they have hope of recovering their investment funds.
Naked loans, telecom fraud...Because of lack of social experience, students are often easy victims of various financial scams.
Now, there is another fund plate.
In fact, in recent years, people of insight have continuously called for financial education to be included in compulsory courses to prevent students from falling into scams.
* Some interviewees in this article are pseudonyms.
* Some interviewees in this article are pseudonyms.
