Previously, consumption rebates were typically offered by supermarkets and shopping malls, which people had heard of and possibly participated in. Recently, however, many full-rebate consumption platforms have emerged online, some with a charitable twist. The so-called full-rebate charity consumption works like this: when you spend 100 yuan at a platform's partner merchants, such as small supermarkets or car washes, the platform returns 99 yuan to you, and the remaining 1 yuan is used for charity. This sounds like a great deal, as consumers almost get products or services for free while also contributing to charity. But is it really that good? Let's look at how a full-rebate consumption platform called 'Renren Gongyi' (Everyone's Charity) operates.

'Renren Gongyi' claims a win-win-win for merchants, consumers, and the platform

In May of last year, a full-rebate consumption platform called 'Renren Gongyi' held a product testing event with a thousand participants. At the meeting, the host passionately painted a beautiful blueprint, claiming that under this platform, merchants, consumers, and the platform itself could all make money, achieving a triple win. Additionally, they claimed that the project had partnered with a certain charity foundation and would donate to build 100 Hope Schools within five years. Does such a seemingly noble and credible project truly achieve the goal of everyone profiting and everyone being charitable?

Chen Weibo is the owner of a car wash. In December of last year, he learned about this charity consumption rebate platform from a salesperson at Renren Gongyi and joined his car wash to it.

Renren Gongyi's operating model requires partner merchants to contribute a fixed percentage of customer spending, such as 24%, 12%, or 6%, to the platform to form a capital pool. For example, if a consumer spends 100 yuan and the merchant pays 24 yuan to the platform, the platform's capital pool will return 99 yuan to the consumer in installments, with 1 yuan going to charity. The 24 yuan that the merchant contributed will also be returned to the merchant in installments, totaling 23.76 yuan. For merchants and consumers, there is essentially no loss; instead, they can gain extra profits.

Testing the waters with 4,800 yuan: over 100 yuan in rebates within 3 days

With such a good deal, Chen Weibo immediately introduced the platform to his long-time customer Yang Haihua. After registering a consumer account, Yang Haihua tentatively spent about 4,800 yuan at the car wash. Chen Weibo entered the transaction into the platform according to the rules, paying 6% of 4,800 yuan, which is about 288 yuan, to the platform. To Yang Haihua's surprise, he received rebates in the following days. The platform gave him 10 'love beans' (a virtual currency), each worth over 5 yuan per day. On the first day, he got over 50 yuan; on the second day, it became over 30 yuan; the amount was not fixed.

The 'love beans' Yang Haihua mentioned are a virtual currency used by the platform for calculations. On this platform, rebates are not in cash but in virtual currency. There are similar virtual currencies like 'angel beans,' and the conversion between them is very complex. For every 1 yuan spent, you get 1 angel bean, and 500 angel beans can be exchanged for one love bean. However, when converting love beans to cash for withdrawal, one love bean is not equivalent to 500 yuan. The value of each love bean is calculated by a seemingly complex algorithm, actually related to the total daily consumption on the platform: the higher the consumption, the higher the love value, and vice versa. During the project's operation, the daily price of each love bean fluctuated around 5-6 yuan. The amount consumers could withdraw daily was based on the number of love beans they held multiplied by the daily love value, and this withdrawal would continue until the consumer's full spending was returned. Within just three days, Yang Haihua had earned over 100 yuan in book rebates.

Salesperson reveals platform loophole: you can make money by fake orders!

At this point, car wash owner Chen Weibo learned another money-making secret. A salesperson from Renren Gongyi secretly told Chen Weibo that the platform had a loophole: it did not verify the authenticity of consumer spending, and this loophole could be exploited to make big money. For Chen Weibo, this was like a pie falling from the sky.

Fake orders, or 'brushing,' involve consumers fabricating consumption. For example, if you fabricate 100 yuan in spending and the merchant's contribution is 24 yuan, the consumer gives 24 yuan to the merchant to hand over to the platform, and without any real purchase, you can gradually receive nearly 100 yuan in rebates, a profit of more than four times. Merchants can also receive nearly 24 yuan in return for their contribution, almost like getting something for nothing.

Consumers invest more and get scammed; platform absorbs 1 billion in a month

Tempted by the huge profits, Chen Weibo immediately registered a consumer account and injected 20,000 yuan into his merchant account. Yang Haihua followed suit, giving Chen Weibo 20,000 yuan for fake orders. Within just over ten days, both had earned nearly 1,000 yuan in book funds.

However, the good times did not last long. By December 28 of last year, the love value on the platform gradually dropped to zero. Even worse, in the following months, the platform could not perform any operations, and the money they had invested in fake orders ultimately went down the drain. Yang Haihua thought about calling the police.

At the same time, the Tianhe police in Guangzhou also targeted this platform. After careful investigation and evidence collection, at the end of April, police from Guangzhou and Shunde, under the unified command of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department's 'Hurricane Operation,' successfully arrested the suspects and dismantled the 'Renren Gongyi' company.

Investigation revealed that in less than a month, 5,267 merchants and 48,505 consumers were involved in the platform. From the official launch on December 1 to the total collapse at the end of the month, it absorbed 1 billion yuan in just one month.

Exposing the Ponzi scheme: using funds from later members to cover earlier ones

This is essentially a Ponzi scheme, using funds absorbed from later members to cover earlier ones. With this model, it is impossible for all investors to receive all rebates as promised. Once no one invests later, the platform has no money to pay rebates to earlier participants. Fake orders became an important channel for Renren Gongyi to accumulate funds.

In fact, Renren Gongyi was, to some extent, using fake orders to build up its capital pool. From the beginning, it had no means to monitor real consumption, and it tacitly allowed fake orders because only this way could it attract a large number of merchants and consumers. Even Qiu's subordinates and relatives were profiting from fake orders, with the total amount of fake orders reaching 150 million yuan. With so much money in the capital pool, would it really return the money to consumers and merchants as promised? It was not that simple.

On one hand, the platform set up concepts like angel beans, love beans, and love values to prevent investors from seeing through the exchange model at a glance and to prevent immediate withdrawal. On the other hand, Qiu admitted that the love value, which determined the daily withdrawal amount for consumers, was not entirely calculated based on the platform's daily consumption as advertised, but was controlled by Qiu, who had up to eight control accounts. Before the project launched, Qiu had already controlled the love value.

Thus, ordinary merchants and consumers found it very difficult to actually get their money as promised. Those who got money were their superiors, the so-called provincial, municipal, gold, and silver partners. In Renren Gongyi's participation model, ordinary merchants and consumers were at the bottom, with multiple agent levels above them. To become such partners, one had to either pay an加盟费 (franchise fee) ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, or have multiple merchants or consumers under them, or be an employee of Renren Gongyi. Once becoming a partner, they could earn an introduction fee for each lower-level member they recruited, and also receive a certain percentage of the consumption amount of their subordinates. The more levels and the more people they recruited, the more money the partners extracted. There were as many as 2,855 such partners, showing that the bulk of the funds was divided among these agents at various levels.

Police: Renren Gongyi is a new type of pyramid scheme

Through investigation, police found that Renren Gongyi's operating model was actually a new type of pyramid scheme, differing from traditional pyramid schemes in that the criminal activity occurred online and involved no physical transactions.

Did Renren Gongyi actually carry out the charitable actions it claimed? It was just a gimmick. In the more than half a year since the company was established, it had only transferred 200,000 yuan to a certain fund, far less than the 1% of the capital pool it claimed, which would have been over 10 million yuan.

In people's impression, participants in traditional pyramid schemes are mostly middle-aged and elderly. However, reporters found that the participants on this platform were quite different: they were almost all young and middle-aged, with relatively high education levels, proficient in using the internet and mobile apps, and quick to accept new things. Consumer Yang Haihua, who held a master's degree in economics from a prestigious university, also fell into the trap.

In fact, victims of such cases may also inadvertently become criminal suspects.

Recently, criminal activities involving online pyramid schemes and illegal fundraising have been on the rise, using online platforms, e-commerce, consumption rebates, financial mutual aid, charity, and high-tech biological products as covers. Victims are spread across the country. Police note that these new types of online crimes spread rapidly, are highly concealed and deceptive, have obvious non-contact characteristics, cross regional boundaries, are difficult to obtain evidence and crack down on, and cause great social harm. While relevant authorities are increasing efforts to combat such crimes, merchants and consumers should also remain vigilant against these consumption rebate activities disguised in various forms; otherwise, they may not only fail to profit but also lose their capital.

Source: CCTV.com -END-