AI Check-in Zero-Investment Arbitrage Scam: Luring New Users and Offering Commissions under the Guise of Idle Crypto Mining

Who Gets Targeted

The victimized groups mostly consist of middle-aged and young people in lower-tier markets looking for side hustles, the unemployed, and cryptocurrency novices lacking blockchain common sense. Attracted by phrases like free idle mining and zero investment, they attempt to obtain and cash out cryptocurrencies through real-name authentication and daily check-ins. Such individuals often harbor a speculative mentality of getting something for nothing and are extremely desensitized to risk. Under the temptation of sunk costs and multi-level referral commissions, they not only immerse themselves long-term but also blindly drag relatives and friends into the mire. Ultimately, they encounter platform restrictions on withdrawals and the token price dropping to zero, resulting in the evaporation of their family's savings or even heavy online loan debts.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Packaging artificial intelligence concepts and fake platforms. Fraudsters build counterfeit digital currency exchange software, fabricating concepts like AI quantitative arbitrage or crawfish check-in yield generation, claiming to achieve stable arbitrage returns using machine learning technology. The platform counterfeits trading depth and trend charts, making victims mistakenly believe there is a real underlying model supporting it, thereby lowering their guard and registering.
• Step 2: Lowering entry barriers through free coins and real-name authentication. Advertising links are posted on social communities or short-video platforms, claiming that free registration and real-name authentication will yield airdropped tokens or initial computing power. This pitch of making money with zero investment directly breaks through the victims' psychological defenses, making them drop their guard and proactively hand over sensitive personal identity information to complete the preliminary cold-start user acquisition.
• Step 3: Designing a token release mechanism via daily check-ins and sign-ins. The platform requires users to log into the software daily and click a crawfish check-in or similar idle-mining button, stimulating retention with meager earnings and building a visit habit. In reality, these tokens are merely a string of numbers in the backend database and cannot circulate on public chains. Yet, users mistakenly believe their time investment translates into real money, thereby continuously contributing daily active user data.
• Step 4: Introducing a multi-level referral commission system. The platform sets up high multi-generation promotional referral cuts, encouraging users to viral-market and acquire new users in social groups and WeChat Moments. When users find that relying solely on their own check-in earnings is too slow, they are driven by profit to pull in large numbers of friends and family. This multi-generation commission model forms an implicit multi-level marketing (MLM) structure, where the coins received by newly registered real-name users are actually disguised rewards distributed to their uplines.
• Step 5: Restricting withdrawals and eventually collapsing/running away. When the platform has accumulated enough traffic or is ready to close out, it uses system upgrades or trading risk control as excuses to restrict withdrawals, forcibly requiring users to pay so-called review fees or activation fees. Eventually, the platform shuts down its servers, the token value instantly drops to zero, the operators flee with the money, and victims are left with nothing but fake digital ledgers that cannot be cashed out, losing everything.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Promising risk-free zero-investment high returns without any real business support.
• 🚩 Featuring a multi-layered promotional referral token mechanism with typical MLM characteristics.
• 🚩 The virtual currency generated by so-called idle mining cannot circulate on mainstream legitimate exchanges and can only be traded internally within the software.
• 🚩 Mandating rigid daily check-in operations to artificially manufacture user activity and stickiness through mechanical tasks.
• 🚩 Setting up numerous obstacles when users attempt to withdraw funds, using various excuses to demand additional capital injections to unfreeze accounts.

真实案例

• According to Xiangmu Home reports, a project named Lobster AI claimed to make money through arbitrage, but verification revealed it lacked any real business support. The project party induced users to invest through false packaging, suspected of being a Ponzi scheme that eventually collapsed. (Source: [https://www.paiu.cn/article/8055.html](https://www.paiu.cn/article/8055.html))
• According to Xiangmu Home reports, a certain Bayer Exchange claimed to give away coins upon real-name verification and offered multi-generation commissions, utilizing zero-investment scripts like AI crawfish check-ins to lure numerous uninformed users into real-name registration, running into multiple trading suspensions and flight crises shortly after launch. (Source: [https://www.uuou.cc/article/6685.html](https://www.uuou.cc/article/6685.html))
• As exposed by Chapan Network, China Zhipu AI illegally misappropriated the name of a well-known AI enterprise, using illegal virtual currency speculation as bait to attract investors, leading massive numbers of victims to invest huge sums of funds only to find their positions locked and unable to be withdrawn. (Source: [https://chapan.cc/article/8503.html](https://chapan.cc/article/8503.html))
• Launched in May 2018, the PlusToken platform disguised itself as a blockchain wallet and smart dog brick-moving arbitrage tool, developing 2.7 million registered members through an MLM model. On November 26, 2020, the Yancheng Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province delivered its second-instance judgment on the case, ruling to confiscate the seized cryptocurrencies and turn them over to the state treasury. Judicial findings determined that the platform defrauded global investors of $2 billion to $2.9 billion, with the total value of the involved cryptocurrencies exceeding 15 billion RMB. (Source: [https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articles/nslg92ui](https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articles/nslg92ui))
• In February 2020, the operators of digital currency exchange FCoin issued an announcement acknowledging platform financial distress and inability to honor user withdrawals. The estimated unpayable assets ranged between 7,000 and 13,000 BTC, which translated to approximately $67.9 million to $126 million at the time, and the platform immediately shut down and collapsed. (Source: [https://m.cj.sina.cn/page/aHR0cDovL2ZpbmFuY2Uuc2luYS5jb20uY24venRfZC9mY29pbmxvc3Qv?from=redirect](https://m.cj.sina.cn/page/aHR0cDovL2ZpbmFuY2Uuc2luYS5jb20uY24venRfZC9mY29pbmxvc3Qv?from=redirect))

Official Stance

• On September 24, 2021, ten departments including the People's Bank of China jointly issued the Notice on Further Preventing and Disposing of Risks in Virtual Currency Trading and Speculation, clarifying that business activities related to virtual currencies belong to illegal financial activities.
• Since 2023, public security organs and anti-fraud centers in various regions have issued early warnings, reminding the public to be vigilant against new types of online multi-level marketing and scam activities disguised under the names of artificial intelligence, zero-investment coin earning, and referral commissions, and urging them not to participate.
• The People's Daily Economy and Technology Channel issued Risk Warnings on Preventing Illegal Financial Activities Involving Virtual Currencies, pointing out that illegal fundraising phenomena under new concepts such as AI quantification and digital technology occur frequently, and investors should remain highly vigilant.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Reject the temptation of risk-free high returns: Any project claiming free check-ins or idle mining to earn virtual currencies violates financial common sense. Do not let get-rich-quick psychology lead you to hand over identity information.
• ✅ Verify platform business qualifications: Conducting virtual currency transactions domestically is currently an illegal financial activity. Any virtual currency arbitrage software promoted to domestic users lacks compliance guarantees, and transferring funds is strictly prohibited.
• ✅ Beware of MLM models: If a platform adopts multi-generation commissions and requires recruiting people to withdraw funds, you should immediately cease participation, retain screenshot evidence, and report it to local public security authorities.
• ✅ Protect personal privacy: Do not casually provide identity documents and facial recognition to unverified platforms to avoid being illegally used for registering black-market cards or money laundering.
• ✅ Install the National Anti-Fraud Center software and enable incoming call alerts. If you encounter platform withdrawal restrictions requiring additional funds for unfreezing, immediately cut off contact and report the case to public security authorities.