There is big news in the asset management circle recently.
After eZubao, the so-called principal of 6 million yuan rolled to 65.438+40 million yuan in 7 years. Qianbao Internet, which earned over 10,000 yuan a month by watching advertisements, filling out questionnaires, and playing games, suddenly collapsed.
2065 438+07 17 On February 26, Zhang Xiaolei, the actual controller of Qianbao.com, came to the Nanjing Public Security Bureau to write a statement and surrendered to the police, saying that he had "absorbed investors' funds and is now unable to pay the principal." "Gold interest"; two days ago, the police announced the preliminary investigation results: Qian Bao. com continues to "borrow new and repay old" and illegally absorb large amounts of public funds. As of the incident, the unpaid principal of the fund-raising participants reached 30 billion yuan.
The seven-year-old scam was finally exposed. Now, Zhang Xiaolei can guarantee his life safety in the Public Security Bureau, but his "treasure fans" (investors of Qianbao.com) are frightened.
"Bao fans" gathered at the door of the police station to discuss countermeasures
(referring to criminals) voluntarily surrendered (to the police)
Zhang Xiaolei's surrender surprised almost everyone Unexpected.
On February 26, 12 last year, Zhang Xiaolei, who had just celebrated Christmas, also issued New Year’s greetings through Qianbao’s official WeChat account. In the video, Zhang Xiaolei is holding a red lantern in one hand and a microphone in the other, shouting to the "Bao fans": "No one is old when traveling around Qingshan. The scenery here is unique."
Unexpectedly, the second time Today, on December 27, 2017, the Nanjing Public Security Bureau’s official Weibo announced that Zhang Xiaolei, the actual controller of Qianbao.com, surrendered to the Nanjing Public Security Bureau on December 26, 2017, on suspicion of illegal crimes.
What is even more dramatic is that when faced with the police announcement, the first reaction of a large number of "treasure fans" was to refuse. Back then, a large number of "treasure fans" gathered at the entrance of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau. However, in addition to some people who want to get their principal back and protect their rights in accordance with the law, there are also a large number of people who hope that the Nanjing Public Security Bureau will "release him as soon as possible". They want to "ensure" that Zhang Xiaolei comes out and "gets through the difficulties."
Why is it so strange that the scammer tries to "bail" the scammer after being defrauded of money?
One of the reasons may be that Zhang Xiaolei’s brainwashing skills are really strong. According to the evaluation of insiders, Zhang Xiaolei is a "god" in the eyes of "fans". He started his own business after graduating from high school. As early as 1997, Zhang Xiaolei, who was only 28 years old, was already a multi-millionaire. Although tens of millions of them disappeared, it undoubtedly added a lot of mystery to his life. In addition, there are many exceptions in his life:
In 2003, he was involved in the "Pan-Asia Incident" and was questioned for embezzling huge amounts of public funds, and was subsequently imprisoned; before Christmas in 2013, Zhang Xiaolei was in internal employee training Said: "The company you work for is a great company... My goal in 2014 is to tame Ermaina (Jack Ma, Ma Huateng)"; in order to manage the company, Zhang Xiaolei often compares himself to the "elected president" and Qian Bao compared it to a "country" and the challenges he faced to a "battle." < /p>
To some extent, he is right. This time it was really not the "Bao Fan's" turn to question. Before "confessing" to the Public Security Bureau, he voluntarily surrendered. But the charges were changed and he was suspected of illegal fund-raising.
Attraction
However, compared with Zhang Xiaolei's powerful brainwashing function, Qian Bao's amazing income may be the ultimate trick that really makes "Bao fans" want to stop. You know, for many people, living in the fantasy of "6 million principal, rolling to 65.438 + 40 million in seven years" is much easier than accepting reality.
A "Bao fan" told reporters that he started working in Qianbao relatively late, but a "big business" he knew was 15 people who started working in Qianbao in 2065 438+00 One, with a principal of 6 million yuan, rose to 654.38+4 billion yuan 7 years later. "He has saved more than 70 million in Qianbao, and he can get 88,000 every day by signing on Qianbao.com. There is also more than 60 million. He bought a house and a car. These people who voted for Qianbao early made a lot of money. "
Another investor Chen Xin confirmed this statement.
A friend he knew earned 52 times his principal amount of 6.5438+9 million yuan, which increased to 99 million yuan in 7 years on Qianbao.com.
Of course, not everyone is so lucky. Chen Xin invested more than 654.38+0.3 million yuan in Qianbao.com, with a total investment of more than 3.7 million yuan before the incident. "I bought the equity of Qianbao.com for 2065.438 + 300,000 yuan in 2004, but I paid 6.5438 + 0.8 million more, which is an increase of 6 times." Seeing that it was easy to make money, Chen Xin borrowed more than 600,000 yuan from the bank to invest in Qianbao. In addition, he had previously invested in "P2P companies" such as Nanjing Blueberry (which has since run away, and the court ruling has been issued). So far, he hasn't gotten any money back. Now he wants to sell the house to pay off the loan.
But no matter what, Qian Bao. com created a powerful business empire. "The strength of Qianbao.com is that it allows most people to make money and stay, believe in and faithfully abide by this platform, and even reinvest profits and incremental funds." Chen Xin said.
Deception
So, what kind of model can make countless "Bao fans" willingly invest huge sums of money into this platform, so that Qianbao.com can survive for seven years?
According to Zhang Xiaolei’s own confession, Qian Bao. com uses high profits from completing advertising tasks as bait, collects user deposits, and absorbs huge amounts of funds from unspecified members of the public by absorbing new user funds, paying old users' principal and income, etc., and is suspected of illegal fund-raising criminal activities.
A bit complicated. Let’s take a look at Qianbao’s promotional materials. To put it simply, you have to become a "treasure fan" first. This step includes registering as a member and paying a certain amount of deposit; then, you are qualified to perform tasks in the lobby, such as watching advertisements, filling out questionnaires, trying games, etc. After completion, you can "receive salary." For example, one case said that if a user can pay a deposit of 654.38 million yuan and guarantee to watch a certain amount of "ads" every day, he or she can earn a minimum income of 4,000 yuan per month and a maximum income of more than 10,000 yuan.
This sounds great, but if you look closely at the tasks, you'll smell something strange.
First of all, how does a company like Qian, which is not very famous, attract a large number of advertisers as advertised? In fact, according to the confessions of Zhang Xiaolei and others, since the platform was launched, almost no external brands have placed advertisements. Its "tasks" are mainly advertisements found randomly on the Internet and internal company videos.
Secondly, the income structure of Qianbao.com mainly includes tasks, check-ins, promotions, etc. Among them, tasks and promotion are the big ones, basically about 2 points per month (annualized income 36%), plus a daily income of 0.05%, its comprehensive income is as high as 3 points 5% per month (annualized income Earnings 42%), including compound interest, it is more than 50%. You should have seen it. It's like loan sharking.
Lawyer Wang Wei from Jiangsu Sanfa Law Firm talked about the essence of the operation of Zengdian Qianbao.com: The so-called "salary" is directly linked to the amount of "deposit", which is not true labor remuneration in essence, but It’s a cover-up for “principal” and “interest.”
But investors did not consider this danger. Under the temptation of high income, a large number of profit-seekers invested real money into the website. Qian Bao. com previously stated that as of September 2017, there were more than 200 million registered users and platform revenue exceeded 50 billion yuan.
Skills
With such a high rate of return and no clear business profit model, how can Qianbao.com rely on to maintain this business?
Getting money and people is the only way to go.
With the development of the company, Qian Bao. com began to implement a more dangerous "business model" - WeChat business and equity investment.
In 2015, Qianbao.com was upgraded to include social networking, shopping, sharing and other functions, claiming to be transformed into a WeChat business platform. According to industry insiders, the main task of doing this is to "whitewash" the company and generate some cash flow to maintain the operation of the platform (a store must pay a mortgage loan of 20,000 yuan to enter Qianbao.com).
What is more dangerous than the WeChat business is the "QBII" project with an initial investment of 6.5438 million yuan. It is a distribution product, but if you look carefully at the contract template, you will find that this is actually an equity investment agreement signed by Qianbao.com and investors. You can obtain dividend income through the target company (basically a shell company), with a maximum yield of 300%.
300% yield! Is there really such a good thing?
Some insiders revealed the mystery. After signing the "QBII" project, the investor's identity changes to that of a shareholder of the company, and the investor's identity changes from "investor" to "equity holder". What does this mean? In other words, the desire of "shareholders" to withdraw cash will be greatly reduced. Not only will it be greatly reduced, but they will also have a great impulse to attract new users to the platform. "Because users buy equity, the company has no obligation to return the investment, and users can only sell to the next owner."
In this way, Zhang Xiaolei established or acquired a large number of real or fake affiliated companies, and designed The illusion of a huge industrial network closely follows policy and public opinion hot spots, creating the illusion of a huge business empire and brainwashing investors.
What will be the consequences? Netizens on Zhihu put it very directly: "The reason why Qianbao.com has been maintained until now is to continue to deliver high interest rates and attract investment with the money-making effect. If those who make money don't leave, they keep attracting people. It is difficult to invest money at the moment." Want to come back. Those who came first took it away, leaving behind the back pot warriors."
Warning
What is interesting is that nowadays, backpackers may cry for land, hoping. Getting the principal back, or shouting "being cheated" or "full of regrets", but in fact, as early as 2015, the Nanjing Municipal Government had good intentions to prevent financial risks such as Qianbao.
At the end of October 2015 165438+, Qian Bao, as one of several sponsors, was blocked by the organizer with a white paper.
On February 15, 2015, the media reported that local media in Nanjing received a "blocking order" from relevant departments and immediately canceled publicity, investment, and business projects in cooperation with Qianbao.com and Wangqian Company.
There are even reports that the relevant departments in Nanjing took measures against Qianbao.com at that time, restricting Qianbao.com from developing offline business in Nanjing, and required Qianbao.com to relocate its registration place and company headquarters.
In 2016, outside the gate of Qianbao.com's office in Jiangning District, Nanjing City, banners were hung at four intersections, which read, "Raise awareness of risk prevention, beware of illegal financing traps, beware of being deceived, and resist the temptation of high-paying fund-raising." , choose investment channels rationally.” It is reported that these banners are measures taken by the Jiangning Economic Development Zone Management Committee to remind investors.
However, Zhang Xiaolei’s company is not alone in Qianbao. An investigation data provided by Tianyancha shows that before the incident, Zhang Xiaolei served as the legal representative of 72 companies, mainly in the software and information technology service industry; Zhang Xiaolei * * * invested in 54 companies, with a maximum investment amount of 44.55 million yuan. Among them, more than 30 companies have been canceled, indicating that 40 companies are at risk.
According to insiders, although the local government in Nanjing has been wary of Qian Bao. Previously, faced with so many companies and ever-changing office locations, relevant government departments were really at a loss.
For those who ignore the risks and invest money in related platforms, we may just remind them that poppy is beautiful, but it is also dangerous.