Liu Xue has been in cold war with her parents for a month. All this began with a live broadcast of "short video campus entrepreneurship". Under the guidance of campus entrepreneurship master "Lv Bu", Liu Xue joined an entrepreneurship project called "traffic king". She once thought she had found the direction of her life. But this dream about entrepreneurship comes and goes quickly. With the "master", Liu Xue "cheated" 6000 yuan from her mother.
LV, the "mentor" of entrepreneurship, did not release videos on the short video platform, saying that there were big business opportunities on campus, and it was easy to earn 27000 yuan a month. Photo source: screenshot of blogger Lv Bu's short video account
At night, Liu Xue began to think over and over in her heart, "why am I cheated?" She said that if they want to achieve economic freedom through their own efforts, for those who have been cheated, telling their experiences may just be heard as a joke.
"Traffic king" is just the tip of the iceberg of the scam. In the major short video platforms, search "campus entrepreneurship", and you can still find a large number of accounts sharing college students' entrepreneurship projects, with 71.733 million topic hits. Some college students who devote themselves to campus entrepreneurship projects want to be Internet Celebrities and realize economic freedom; Some hope to reduce their parents' burden by subsidizing their daily expenses through "flow king"; Others plan to make money to buy a commodity that has been growing grass for a long time and then quit. They all believe in the myth of short video making wealth.
The Beijing News reporter found that such short video accounts that teach college students how to start a business take the opportunity to promote "entrepreneurial projects" and attract college students to pay to join while grabbing network traffic. The so-called project is actually constantly pulling franchisees into the partnership and developing offline.
Chen Dong (a pseudonym), a policeman who has investigated relevant cases for many years, uses "endless rats" to describe similar gangs. "Many cases involving MLM fail to meet the criminal responsibility standard, the evidence chain cannot be closed, and the participants can only criticize them when they report the case." Driven by huge profits, some criminals would rather take risks and start a new stove even if they were punished.
"Flying pig" on the air outlet
Liu Xue's dream of wealth began with a live webcast.
On January 6, 2022, in a short video platform, a campus entrepreneurship live broadcast hosted by blogger "Lv Bu" attracted her attention. "It's so easy to make money in college now. I made a total of 1.2 million yuan in college and successfully led hundreds of college students to achieve economic freedom." On the screen, Lv Bu, a 20-year-old boy, is enthusiastically talking about his tortuous and brilliant entrepreneurial journey. He is a famous brand, with a pair of black framed glasses on his thin face and a shiny oil head.
"A girl studying in a junior college, after joining the college students' entrepreneurship project, after only one year, she changed herself and became an online celebrity with millions of fans. She also liked to mention the convertible BMW..." Lu Bu Tao described one case after another of college students getting rich. From time to time, she raised her hands and drew back and forth in front of her chest. The big famous metal watch on her wrist was shaken and "clattered".
Liu Xue envies those who can get rich quickly. She studied in a university in Tianjin and majored in international business. Among countless occupations, she most envies online bloggers with fashionable clothes and free time. The 19-year-old never shy away from her purpose of spending a lot of time shooting short videos every day: "if you want to make money, go to the Internet, be a blogger if you want to be famous, and be a netizen if you want to make money and be famous."
Lv Bu said that the short video has strong interaction and is the "spiritual food" that everyone can't live without. It can not only harvest the flow, but also realize it. "Entrepreneurship is to be a flying pig standing on the tuyere. If the tuyere is right, the pig can fly." Liu Xue picked up a pen and wrote in her notebook, "be a flying pig on the tuyere!"
After more than 30 minutes of live broadcast, Liu Xue didn't understand what Lv Bu said about the short video entrepreneurship project, but her intuition told her that it coincided with her dream.
On the same day, Liu Xue took the initiative to add Lv Bu's wechat and asked about the method of short video entrepreneurship. "The company will teach you how to operate your own account and realize it through short video traffic." Lv Bu was not very enthusiastic. He told Liu Xue that a few days ago, he just helped an 18-year-old girl do the live broadcast and gained a lot of fans.
Liu Xue recalled that after some courtesies, Lv Bu recommended an entrepreneurial project called "flow king" to her, saying that the original price of the entry fee was 9800 yuan, and now she can become a senior partner as long as 5980 yuan. After joining the association, the company will provide ready-made video materials and copywriting to help her build a large flow of successful entrepreneurial young people.
Liu Xue is ready to act immediately. But the entrance fee is not a small amount for her. In the evening, she asked her mother for 6000 yuan on the grounds of signing up for an English training class. The parents on the other side of the phone not only knew nothing about Liu Xue's business plan, but also felt gratified for her daughter's progress.
Like Liu Xue, Lin Yang, a 20-year-old junior, once thought he had met bole. Lin Yang has lived in a less affluent family in Guizhou since childhood. His parents make a living by growing vegetables and farming. In order to reduce the burden on his family, Lin Yang works in the fast food restaurant near the school every weekend for 80 yuan an hour. "It's not easy to test from my hometown. I must work harder than others."
In his freshman year, Lin Yang went shopping with his classmates in Chongqing for the first time. "A pair of basketball shoes can be sold for more than 2000 yuan, and it costs 300 yuan to eat an authentic steak and Western food." It was a "new world" that Lin Yang had never seen in his hometown county. For those students who lived a superior life, he often felt envy and inferiority.
On November 6, 2021, Lin Yang was attracted by Lu Bu's "heroic" image in a short video. He felt that LV did not only understand the actual needs of college students, but also proficient in the ways of short video operation.
"I've seen a lot of bloggers who get rich because of short videos. They are very cool and cool." A few days later, Lin Yang rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in the dormitory, found the remaining 1306 yuan, paid the deposit, and pieced together 1500 yuan from his classmates and friends around within a week, officially joining the college student entrepreneurship project. He regarded the "flow king" as a fast ship that changed his fate and decided to try it.
The "flow king" campus entrepreneurship project is a publicity poster released publicly. Picture provided by the interviewee
An entrepreneur you've never met
After entering the project member group, Liu Xue got a specific project teaching video. The Beijing News reporter saw from this video that it was a video recorded by Lv Bu, which taught members how to build personal equipment. In the video, he first taught members how to compile personal introductions: "you can write like this. You came out to mix with society at a young age and made great achievements. There are two short video internet companies. These are compiled, and the background of avatars should also be related to showing off wealth."
On the last page of the video, it reads, "internal information is only for members to watch. It is strictly prohibited to disclose and bear the consequences". Liu Xue said that this teaching video has appeared in several member groups. "The packaging and script of many short video accounts for campus entrepreneurship are exactly the same as what is said in this video."
On the day Liu Xue first joined the group, Lu Bu invited a "male guest" to talk about his changes after joining the "traffic king" in the group. In this sharing, the male guest publicized his twists and turns of making money at zero cost through projects such as cleaning the bedroom, recycling old clothes and opening a small print shop, and claimed that it would be easy to earn thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan a month as long as he did it according to the teaching video. Recalling that day, Liu Xue said, "it's like a crazy success sharing lecture".
According to the teaching video, Liu Xue registered new accounts on several short video platforms. Lu Bu told her that in the process of packaging people, "showing off your wealth" is very important, "let the audience feel that you are particularly powerful, and they will privately trust you and ask you the secrets and methods of starting a business. In this way, more than half of you have succeeded." Then, LV didn't promise her that as long as someone sent a private letter, the company would send someone to conduct one-on-one sales counseling, "after the next family completes the franchise payment, you can get a commission."
The Beijing News reporter found that the "traffic king" project has three levels: member, partner and senior partner. Pay 2980 yuan, 4980 yuan, 6980 yuan and 10000 yuan to become members of different levels. According to the rebate system of "flow king", after offline franchise payment, the home can withdraw 10% - 30% of the total cost. In addition, the senior partner project with a price of 19800 yuan claims that it can create a personal exclusive IP. If a transaction is completed, it can obtain a commission of up to 50%.
Liu Xue is worried that this joining mode is similar to MLM, but Lv Bu at the other end of the mobile phone seems to have felt her hesitation, "I won't hurt you. If you pull someone, this person can help you sell and pull people again. One to two, two to four, office workers can't make so much money. If it's MLM, the police have caught us long ago. If you don't even believe in yourself, how can you let others believe it?"
At the other end, Lin Yang also joined another "flow king" project group.
One after another, Lin Yang opened a personal account in three short video platforms. His personal setting for himself is: "20-year-old junior college student, started a business for three years, and successfully operated a media company with a market value of tens of millions". When Lin Yang recalled to the Beijing News reporter the days when he stared at the short video profile like a demon, he said, "this is an easy opportunity to make money. I especially believed everything he said at that time."
There are 258 people in his project group, all of whom are college students aged 18-22. There are more than a dozen such groups, and Lv Bu's task is to encourage and urge them frequently in the group. "More than 20 years of independent life has taught me a truth. When people have no money, everyone looks down on them. Think about their parents and work hard to raise you so that you can make a difference in the future." LV kept sending voice, and the members who paid the money catered to the reply one after another, "the boss asked to take it, come on together!"
Recalling the "flow king" partnership crowd, Lin Yang sighed "Crazy". In fact, the members of the group have never really met Lv Bu and do not know each other's real names.
In March 2022, the campus entrepreneurship tutor repeatedly told college students that if they were recruited into the "flow king" project, they would get a 10% commission, and claimed that the distribution profit of the project was more than 36%. Picture provided by the interviewee
Head pulling operation
Online "pulling heads" has become Liu Xue's "main business".
"First use a large area of light eye shadow to cover the entire eye socket, which will have the effect of magnifying both eyes..." at 9:00 in the morning, the first professional class in the university has begun. Liu Xuecai reluctantly got up from bed, sat cross legged in the narrow upper and lower bunks, and learned makeup with the video blogger. This is her first step to become an online popular entrepreneurial blogger.
She applied a thick layer of liquid foundation on her face, and then picked up a small brush and circled powder Blusher. After more than a dozen processes, Liu Xue felt that she was finally radiant in the mirror and could be photographed.
At the beginning of the live broadcast, Liu Xue compared her heart to the camera, glanced at the draft made in advance on the paper with Yu Guang, and tried to recall some key words, "Hello, everyone, today is my first day of live broadcast. In the future, I will use this number to share my entrepreneurial story. I hope to support me more. I am your Xiaoxue and love you!" She sat at her desk and pulled the curtain against the wall so that no one could see her outside the window.
After more than three hours of live broadcasting, Liu Xue began to sort out and edit the materials of short videos, reply to private letters sent by fans, and kept busy living until more than one o'clock at night. In the early morning, Liu Xue was still too excited to sleep. Those slim dreams of wealth were mixed in the dark night and refused to disperse. Since then, absenteeism has become a common occurrence.
In order to attract more "heads", Liu Xue aimed at the people around her.
She said in her bedroom that she knew a rich and capable person who was doing many businesses and was very successful. She could bring everyone to make money. In her bedroom, there was a wave of discussion about "short video entrepreneurship". Like Liu Xue, girls have crazy yearning and pursuit for "traffic to make wealth". They are eager to try, plan the money they earn in advance, and which commodity they should buy first.
Under the leadership of Liu Xue, roommate Li Xiaoying paid 2980 yuan to join the "flow king" entrepreneurship project. In order to enhance the sense of trust and attract the next entrepreneur more effectively, packaging yourself is an important part. Li Xiaoying took several girls in her dormitory to the mall in the city. With insufficient money in her hand, she bought three bright colored skirts and carefully made shapes. She created a network for herself. She is a college student who has started a business for three years and has become a female CEO of a media company.
For a long time, girls believed in the path of "flow king" to create wealth. Li Xiaoying recalled that one morning, she was awakened by her roommate's telephone quarrel. She heard about it. Her roommate's parents asked her to go back to her hometown to find a job immediately after graduating from college, but her classmates didn't want to leave the big city. "If you want to be free from the control of your parents, you must first be financially independent, otherwise they will make disorderly arrangements." In Li Xiaoying's view, children who can make money by themselves can have more voice, which also proves that their entrepreneurship is wise.
In March 2022, Liu Xue's personal short video account had nearly 10000 fans. In the three months of "entrepreneurship", she brought in two roommates and one person online, with a total franchise fee of 8940 yuan. Liu Xuexi happily counted the Commission of less than 900 yuan in her hand and bought a bottle of net red liquid foundation, which has been growing grass for a long time. She felt that using her own money to buy her favorite products could also be regarded as "Kung Fu pays off".
The dream of getting rich is broken
Liu Xue's excited entrepreneurial passion lasted less than a month.
Unable to attract new people, her enthusiasm has faded by more than half. "I just use my account to continuously publish campus entrepreneurship videos to attract other students to send private letters. A set of operations depends on my mouth." Liu Xue feels that there is no specific product and the rebate income from developing new members is not stable. On March 6, she publicly questioned in the member group.
The next day, a person who claimed to be an entrepreneurial assistant added Liu Xue's wechat and announced a "punishment decision" to her. "As a punishment, you didn't hire anyone this month, and there will be no commission next month." After that, she suddenly realized - "in fact, these companies have no actual projects and products, just empty shells."
Liu Xue wants a refund. She felt that she was not only tired, but also didn't make any money. She also lost 6000 yuan, which was not cost-effective in any way. "As soon as I offered a refund, I was kicked out of the group. They also said that if I had the ability, I would go to the police." Liu Xue said that the other party had repeatedly warned her that the payment was purely voluntary and that she gave up and could not refund. Before the payment, both parties have not signed any agreement and contract.
"I trust him (Lv Bu), so I also trust this venture." Although she never met, Liu Xue never doubted the entrepreneur who encouraged her and taught her to become a traffic blogger on her mobile phone in the whole process. Liu Xue said that she thought of this sudden breeding a feeling of "lovelorn" and couldn't help crying.
After the cheated college students offered a refund, they were rejected by the entrepreneurial "mentor". Picture provided by the interviewee
At the same time, in the short video platform, LV kept publishing videos on campus entrepreneurship success, attracting people to join the club. In addition to the "flow king" project, more similar projects came into being, "some people first paid the flow king once and renewed the fee again in the laundry project." Liu Xue gradually found that no matter what kind of project, the words used by entrepreneurs are the same as the "teaching method".
That day, several roommates who started their business with Liu Xue fell into collective silence. "In fact, I once doubted those people." "Why didn't we expect that the story that salted fish can turn over in a few days is a myth." "It's really the lack of a string in the brain that makes such a rich dream. Those people probably started by cheating." In the past, everyone talked late into the night about "entrepreneurship" every day, but this time, the communication before turning off the lights at 9:30 lasted only three or two sentences.
In fact, most "entrepreneurs" don't make money.
After half a year, Lin Yang also found clues. He said that the other party did not provide the promised "one-on-one guidance" service and professional training. "The so-called project is like a cover. They first use some projects with products to hang you and let you into the pit. In fact, they all let you constantly pull your head." Since then, Lin Yang's request for a refund was also rejected and kicked out of the project group.
Lin Yang suspected that those who took the lead in agreeing and were invited to share their experience should also be "childcare". He recalled that when he first entered the member group, several people had been taking the lead in the group, echoing Lv Bu's speech and sharing their entrepreneurial achievements from time to time. The fact proved that no one made money from the project. At that time, Lin Yang, like many people, believed that these were true.
Yang was a core member of the "traffic king". He confirmed to the Beijing news that most entrepreneurial bloggers adopt the same routine: after successfully adding students' wechat, he will release some "success cases" through his circle of friends, and use the payment screenshots of the fees earned in some projects to make students believe that the project can really make money. "In fact, they are all fake and fake screenshots. Only a few people can really get rewards and rebates."
According to the payment vouchers provided by several college students, the payee of the "flow king" project is Zhejiang Guomeng Media Group Co., Ltd. The Beijing News reporter found that the enterprise was registered in Qiantang District, Hangzhou and was established on August 13, 2021. In January this year, because the registered residence or business place could not be contacted, it was listed as abnormal operation by Hangzhou Qiantang district market supervision and Administration Bureau.
On April 7, the staff of Xiaoshan District Market Supervision Bureau of Hangzhou told the Beijing news that at present, the relevant enterprise legal persons have been unable to contact, and the specific case is still under investigation. The reporter of Beijing News called Zhejiang Guomeng Media Group Co., Ltd. to inquire about the models of pulling heads and sharing commissions involved in entrepreneurial projects such as "traffic king". Its staff said that the projects operated by the company are reasonable and legal secondary distribution, not MLM.
In April 2022, the reporter of Beijing News learned from Hangzhou market supervision and administration bureau that Zhejiang Guomeng Media Group Co., Ltd. has been listed as abnormal operation. Picture provided by the interviewee
After being cheated
After being cheated, Liu Xue often hides in the upper bunk of the dormitory alone. She pulled up the curtain, lay in bed and brushed her mobile phone. When she saw the funny passage, she "giggled" a few times. But this short-term happiness will disappear immediately when the roommate comes back, because the "flow king", several other girls in the bedroom were cheated of money, and Liu Xue has become an isolated object. Many times, she lay alone in bed, quietly listening to the conversations of other girls, and she didn't dare to breathe.
At night, Liu Xue began to think over and over in her heart, "why am I cheated?" She said that if they want to achieve economic freedom through their own efforts, for those who have been cheated, telling their experiences may just be heard as a joke.
In April, these college students who were deeply involved in entrepreneurial scams spontaneously formed a rights protection group. After joining the group, Liu Xue found that people with the same experience were all over the country. "There are a total of 13 such rights groups, with 200 or 300 people in each group." According to her incomplete statistics, more than 1000 college students were cheated, involving a total amount of about 4 million yuan.
The students decided to report to the Shibei police station of Xiaoshan District branch of Hangzhou Public Security Bureau. However, due to the difficulty in obtaining evidence for online MLM, the wide range of cases involved and the difficulty in determining the jurisdiction, the electronic records could not be accessed accurately, the police could not identify the illegal acts of the organizations involved, and the students' alarm ended in nothing.
On April 11, the staff of Shibei police station told the Beijing news that the case was being handled and preliminarily identified as an economic dispute. The college students involved in the case had been educated, and the specific details of handling the case were inconvenient to be disclosed.
Because of being cheated, the students always pay attention to the information of solving the case. They launched "College Students' anti fraud" hyperwords on various social platforms to search for evidence about the case. Recently, in order to warn other college students, Lin Yang led the production of a series of short videos to expose the routine of "masters" of entrepreneurship success on campus and publish them on social platforms.
Subsequently, more scams surfaced.
"Traffic king" is just the tip of the iceberg of the scam. In the major short video platforms, search "campus entrepreneurship", and you can still find a large number of accounts sharing college students' entrepreneurship projects, with 71.733 million topic hits. Such accounts are usually accompanied by bright resumes, such as becoming a partner of a group after three years of university entrepreneurship, helping tens of thousands of college students realize economic freedom, etc., while the video content and copywriting are basically similar, mostly including bedroom cleaning projects, old clothes recycling projects and print shop projects.
In a short video platform, a large number of similar campus entrepreneurship bloggers are active, among which the total number of hits of campus entrepreneurship exceeds 10 million. Image source: screenshot of short video platform
The reporter sent private messages to multiple accounts through the short video platform, all of which were required to add personal wechat. In a chat, a short video blogger named "Xiaokai senior" recommended an entrepreneurial project called "yuanuniverse pet store" to reporters, saying that it was not a problem to lie down and earn tens of thousands of yuan a month without any risk.
Xiaokai senior said that he is now in the stage of limited time promotion. "If you want to join the club, you need a threshold fee. The original price is 2980, but now it's only 1980." After the reporter said that he had no ability to pay, the other party said that he could pay a deposit of 1000 yuan in advance and make up the balance after making money. "The quota is tight. I can give you a chance, or you will charge according to the original price in a few days. You can think about it.".
Anti fraud police Chen Dong (a pseudonym) confirmed to the reporter of the Beijing news that it is a criminal act that seriously undermines the market economic order and endangers social stability to continuously develop offline, attract people and collect entry fees with gimmicks such as online alliance. In fact, MLM and fraud crimes that rely on the network platform have certain practical difficulties in data access. In addition, some people involved will rent foreign servers, which takes a long time and takes a long cycle to access data.
In the process of participating in handling the case for many years, Chen Dong found that there are many online MLM members, and the relationship between the organization personnel is loose, or even they don't know each other. In terms of the identification of the funds involved, the personnel involved usually use the third-party payment platform for transactions, easily bypassing bank supervision. "After a lot of funds pass through the third-party payment platform, it is difficult to directly identify which one belongs to MLM funds."
Chen Dong used "endless rats" to describe MLM fraud gangs on the Internet. "Many cases involving MLM can't be closed because the evidence chain can't be closed, and the level and number of people can't meet the criminal responsibility standard. The participants can only criticize and educate them when they report the case." Chen Dong said that driven by huge interests, some criminals will take risks and start a new stove even if they know they will be punished. In his opinion, online MLM has strong fission and regeneration, which has increased the investigation pressure of grass-roots police.
Recently, the "Campus Master Lu Bu" account has been cancelled. The new account "campus guide Lu Bu" is active again in the short video platform, using similar copywriting and video circle powder.
The reporter left a message on Lv Bu's short video account to express his demand for verification, but as of press time, he still had no reply.
Lin Yang continued to report to the regulatory authorities, "there are more than a dozen rights groups alone. Some people think the money can't be recovered, even if it's over, but I'm still insisting."
(at the request of the interviewee, Liu Xue, Lin Yang, Li Xiaoying and Chen Dong are pseudonyms)