"Time Bank" App Investigation: Claimed Daily Revenue 5% Touch Porcelain Public Welfare Project Suspected of forging documents of the Ministry of Civil Affairs
Touch porcelain
The "Time Bank" App is a scam, and the "touch" is the public welfare mutual aid project "Time Bank"
swindle
The static mode allows participants to give money and return a certain amount every day, under the banners of "capital and interest protection" and "zero risk"
The dynamic mode allows participants to invite new people, continuously develop downline, and bring more people to the more achievements
finale
The scam is saturated, and the criminals will shut down the net and run away after fooling around, and then make a comeback in a different shell
"High returns, low risks, backed by the state's new pension policy!" At the beginning of this year, Ms. Wang, who is in her 50s, was introduced by a friend to an app called "Time Bank", which is said to be "a mutual aid pension model initiated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as long as you recharge a certain amount of time currency online, you can generate income, and time currency can be converted into yuan one to one."
Ms. Wang moved her heart, downloaded the App through the group link, and began to subscribe for Time Coin, and successively invested more than 1,<> yuan. Out of the psychology of having money to earn together, she also recommended this project to several friends. Recently, she was told that it was a scam project, but Ms. Wang was still lucky, "It is said that the project supported by the state financial appropriation is much more formal than the previous scam projects." ”
In the view of the "Li Xu anti-deception team", the "Time Bank" App, which claims to hold official documents, charges middle-aged and elderly people a certain fee for activating the account, and then continues to develop offline under the banner of "capital and interest protection" and "zero risk", recruiting elderly care service volunteers, and the snowball has become bigger and bigger, "Once the scam reaches saturation, the criminals will close the network and run away after they can't fool down, and then make a comeback in a different shell." ”
Undercover promotion group for journalists
Recently, some social platforms have popularized a new investment method "Time Bank" App based on the mutual assistance pension model, featuring "high returns, low risks, and the new pension policies introduced by the state", attracting many middle-aged and elderly people to participate.
With the new national pension policy
For propaganda techniques
On March 3, the reporter contacted Zheng, one of the promoters of the project on a social platform. Zheng told reporters that the "Time Bank" App is a low-risk investment project endorsed by the national policy, and it can have a 23% return every day after subscribing and hiring, "For example, 5,1000 yuan can be given 50 yuan a day, and the national policy will continue until 2025. ”
Zheng stressed that the fast return and withdrawal speed of one month is the special feature of the "Time Bank" App that distinguishes it from other projects. Zheng advertised, "After this vote, you can withdraw every day, the withdrawal speed is very fast, some (projects) let you put it in it for a long time can not be raised, this you invest 24 hours after it will automatically come to your account account, basically less than a month can return the book." In addition, Zheng also introduced that the daily income can be exchanged for USDT (a virtual currency name) on the exchange, "you need 200 USDT to withdraw to the account, the more you invest, the sooner you can save 200 USDT to trade and withdraw."
"Another way to earn is to buy the original shares, which can be purchased with money or time coins, which are also universal, exchangeable, and can be transferred. Inviting new users can also be exchanged for items such as oil, rice, thermos cups, umbrellas, and even cars and gold. Zheng changed his tone, "But now the quota limit is only 1,5, and it is almost full, if you want to do it, I will send you an invitation code."
Keep pitching within the group
Frequently publish how to operate
In order to dispel the reporter's doubts about the authenticity of the project, Zheng pulled the reporter into a WeChat group called "Time Bank Volunteer Association". In the promotion group, the administrator used the promotional video to describe the "time bank" as a financial project, and detailed the construction of the so-called "time bank" system in stages. In addition, "official documents on the subsidy policy of time bank" and links to conferences explaining the investment projects of "time bank" are often released.
In another "time bank welfare" group that Ms. Wang joined above, she found that multiple administrators were also frequently posting about the operation of this "time bank" app: hire volunteers with 1000,50 time coins, each volunteer can generate 1 time coins per day, and time coins can be converted into RMB in a 1:<> manner. In addition to buying time coins in RMB, investors can also earn lucky bags by checking in daily, answering questions, inviting new users, etc., with considerable additional income.
Scam revealed
"Touch Porcelain" Public Welfare Mutual Aid Project "Time Bank"
The reporter noticed that in the information provided by Ms. Wang and the relevant QQ group, the "State Council", "Civil Affairs Bureau", "Ministry of Finance" and "National Office for the Ageing" have more than once appeared to promote "old-age services", and actively prepared various documents of the "Time Bank Volunteer Association", such as the "Time Bank" 2021th Five-Year Plan (2025-2022) National Strategic Project (Minfa [78] No. 2022) and the "Implementation Measures on the Establishment of the < Time Bank Volunteer Association> (Minfa [172] No. <>). Subsequently, the reporter searched the State Council Policy Document Database and the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs with the document number marked on the document, but did not find relevant content. In addition, the name of the relevant group of the project and the work card provided by Ms. Wang are marked with the words "China Time Bank Volunteer Association". According to relevant regulations, formal organizations established in China need to file with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but on the national social organization credit information publicity platform, reporters did not search for any information about the association.
The server address is usually located overseas, and the trader also commands remotely from abroad
Li Xu, who has been engaged in anti-transmission and anti-deception work for more than 20 years, told reporters that they believe that the "time bank" app is a scam, and that the "touch" is the public welfare mutual aid project "time bank".
The reporter combed and found that the term "time bank" was first written into the official document at the end of 2021 - "Beijing Pension Service Time Bank Implementation Plan (Trial)", which was jointly issued by the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau together with the Municipal Bureau of Finance and the Municipal Youth League Committee, and the 2022 Beijing "Two Sessions" government work report also developed the "time bank" mutual aid pension model as a work task of Beijing. This model is a new model of voluntary mutual assistance for the elderly in accordance with the idea of "saving time at the young age and changing services for the elderly", recording and storing the service time according to certain rules, and extracting time to exchange services when the elderly need it. According to media reports, at present, major central cities and communities in China have begun the initial exploration and attempt of "time bank" to alleviate the shortage of pension service supply and open up a new path for improving the quality of China's elderly care service.
At the same time, this model of mutual aid for the elderly is also being "touched porcelain". Li Xu said that after discovering that parents invested in people online, many children of middle-aged and elderly people also recently consulted their anti-fraud team about the credibility of the "Time Bank" App. According to Li Xu's investigation, the "Time Bank" App began to appear on the Internet at the end of 2022, and the server address is usually set overseas, and the trader is also remotely commanded abroad, "so the cost of illegal crimes is very low, but the crackdown is very difficult."
Operate in both static and dynamic modes
When the scam is saturated, it will shut down the Internet and run
Li Xu's investigation found that the "time bank" app mainly operated the app through two modes: static and dynamic in the early stage. The static mode is to let participants give money and return a certain amount every day, under the banner of "capital and interest protection" and "zero risk"; The dynamic mode is to let participants invite new people, continuously develop downline, and pull more people to improve achievements. The combination of these two models not only achieves the purpose of a large number of illegal fundraising, but also can be fissionally promoted among the crowd, and the development speed is very fast, "once the scam reaches saturation, the criminals will shut down the network and run away, and then change the shell and make a comeback." ”
In the "Time Bank" app, the manager divides users into 6 levels: ordinary members, star members (level 1 to 5), regional leaders, city and county association presidents, provincial association presidents, and seven district association presidents, and the number of recommended people can be rewarded with 500 to 2000 time coins. The reporter noticed that many people shared their investment experiences in the group: some said that after recommending them to friends, their family hired dozens of people before and after to quickly return their capital; Some said that they had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they made a lot of money after quickly returning their capital. In Li Xu's view, some middle-aged old people were deceived into the game, and some knew that it was an irregular project, but they took the initiative to enter the game after seeing the high profit margin in the early stage, "They held a fluke mentality, thinking that they could withdraw before the collapse, thinking that they would not be the one who was cut leeks." ”
Civil affairs departments crack down on counterfeiting
The relevant documents are forged and suspected of fundraising fraud
The reporter learned that since January this year, many netizens have left messages in the "Message Consultation" column of the official website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, seeking to verify the authenticity of the "Time Bank" App claiming to hold official documents.
Some netizens left a message: "Recently, the elderly at home contacted a time bank app, saying that hiring a volunteer at a price of 1000,50 yuan can get a subsidy of 2022182 yuan per day, and also showed me the document "On the Establishment of Time Bank Online Cloud Community Subsidy System" (Minlian Fa No. <>). In response, the Ministry of Civil Affairs responded unanimously that the ministry had issued a "Statement on Vigilance Against Lawbreakers Suspected of Forging Documents of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Other Illegal Activities", and emphasized that "please do not believe the above-mentioned forged documents and beware of being deceived." You can also log on to the official website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and inquire about the policy documents voluntarily disclosed by our Ministry in the government information disclosure column, so as to facilitate comparison and verification."
According to the Statement on Vigilance against Lawbreakers Suspected of Forging Documents of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Other Illegal Activities released on the official website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on March 3, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has never issued the "Time Bank" 15th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) National Strategic Project (Minfa [2022] No. 78), the "Implementation Measures on the Establishment of the < Time Bank Volunteer Association> (Minfa [2022] No. 172), and the "< on the Establishment of the Time Bank Online Cloud Community Subsidy System" > Notice (Minlian Fa [2022] No. 182), "Detailed Rules on the Establishment of the "Time Coin" Reward Mechanism", and "Notice on <Further Improving the National Unified Construction Standard > of China Time Bank" (Minfa [2023] No. 198), the above five documents are all forged.
In addition, the Ministry of Civil Affairs also stressed that the organization called the "Time Bank Volunteer Association" has never been registered. After more and more middle-aged and elderly people were suspected of being deceived, local civil affairs bureaus also issued documents one after another. For example, the Civil Affairs Bureau of Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, said on March 3 that it recently discovered that criminals used forged Ministry of Civil Affairs documents to promote relevant apps in the city, recruit elderly care service volunteers, and charge fees for activating accounts, and their operation methods were suspected of fundraising fraud.
Reminder from professionals
It is impossible to drop pies in the sky
All financial activities should be treated with caution
Li Xu told reporters that in recent years, scams similar to the "Time Bank" app have emerged one after another, basically "touching porcelain" some formal legal institutions, national policies or well-known enterprises. For example, the previously exposed "carbon neutrality" projects, "Belt and Road" projects and "CNOOC International" projects are all fake financial projects packaged by criminals using emerging concepts and the fame of formal institutions. Li Xu emphasized that the group of deceived, mostly middle-aged and elderly people, because many people do not have the ability to judge the authenticity of information, have time and a certain amount of savings, and are easily defrauded by these false projects under the influence of psychology such as value-added preservation, investment and financial management, and exchanging small money for big money.
Li Xu also reminded that any investment project must have a "financial license" issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and if you want to judge the authenticity of a project, you can first confirm whether the project really exists through the CBIRC. Some so-called official documents can also be verified through the official government website or official platform, "in terms of consciousness, the first time to build a firewall against fraud."
"At present, middle-aged and elderly people generally lack financial common sense, prevention awareness and risk awareness in anti-fraud, and we have contacted many deceived elderly people, who are fooled by the tall packaging of scammers, and pensions and even 'coffin books' have been swept away by scammers." In Li Xu's view, in the face of some investment projects that do not conform to market laws and financial common sense, we must be vigilant, it is impossible to drop pies in the sky, and all financial management activities must be treated with caution and cannot be blindly invested.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News Reporter Cai Xiaoyi Lan Jing Intern Tang Mengjie