Fake VAST.AI Posing Ponzi Scheme: A DeFi Dividend Pyramid Scam Exploiting the Name of a Renowned AI Computing Unicorn

Who Gets Targeted

The primary victims are retail investors interested in the AI computing sector and cryptocurrency. Most are anxious speculators who missed out on the early AI concept dividend, easily seduced by the halo of freshly financed prominent AI unicorns and high daily returns. Misled by the unicorn halo in short videos and private domain communities, they blindly trust high-yield dividend promises without verifying the authenticity of company information, attempting to gamble for exorbitant returns, and ultimately ending up unable to withdraw funds and losing everything after the Ponzi scheme collapses. This scheme has spread via ground promotion in places like Hubei, Yunnan, and Jiangxi, with a minimum entry of 500 USDT and the highest tier requiring a deposit of 59,880 USDT. Deposits are made via cross-chain USDT transfers with funds irrecoverable, and investors are induced to re-invest and add principal according to tiers (media estimates unverified by independent review).

骗局怎么运作

• Misappropriating the name of a renowned AI enterprise to package the project. Fraud rings forge whitepapers or websites, claiming cooperation with well-known computing companies or acting as their official token, borrowing the news endorsement of their recently completed massive financing to claim the issuance of edge computing tokens for super-high returns, making victims mistakenly believe this is an officially endorsed crypto wealth management product.
• Building DeFi staking pools and token-holding dividend mechanisms. Victims are required to stake stablecoins or mainstream currencies into designated smart contracts or fake platforms, claiming that holding tokens allows sharing of platform transaction fees and computing power output, setting different lock-up tiers corresponding to different yields, and seducing investors to continuously add principal and re-invest with high interest.
• Adopting multi-level marketing (MLM) and community fission models. By setting up direct referral bonuses, team differential bonuses, and other MLM structures to stimulate early investors to pull newcomers into the game, a Ponzi fund pool is constructed, using latecomers' principal to pay previous investors' interest and commissions, forming a typical rolling Ponzi operation model with zero real computing output support at the bottom.
• Private domain community brainwashing and fake hype. Arranging paid actors in instant messaging groups to coordinate with disguised lecturers, daily posting fake profit screenshots and project favorable news, suppressing dissenting voices, and inducing victims to send gratitude red packets in the group to create a false impression of a bustling platform and prevent victims from contacting external anti-fraud warning information.
• Data cycling and finally shutting down the website to run away. When capital inflow slows down or centralized withdrawals are encountered, operators delay by modifying smart contracts, pulling network cables, or limiting withdrawal quotas, or even freezing all accounts under the pretext of system upgrades or hacker attacks, and finally directly shutting down the website to run away, erasing bookkeeping data and transferring assets to overseas mixer platforms.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Yields are fixed and abnormally high, far exceeding the reasonable range of normal computing power leasing and staking dividends, using lock-up duration as an excuse to restrict withdrawals, with financial products promising daily returns.
• 🚩 The project claims to be backed by a prominent AI company that just completed financing, but no such token issuance project or cooperation announcement can be found on its official website and compliant social media, existing only in information flows from secondary unofficial channels.
• 🚩 The promotion model relies on drawing in people, setting up multi-level rebates and referral rewards, accompanied by a community atmosphere of forced order-brushing and mutual assistance payment screenshots, exhibiting typical MLM characteristics of pulling in new users to maintain cash flow.
• 🚩 The fundraising method only accepts cryptocurrency transfer deposits, rejecting fiat currency, not circulating on compliant exchanges, relying heavily on decentralized wallet authorizations, or transferring to cold wallets to privately modify contract permissions.
• 🚩 The core operating team does not disclose true identities, interacting only through group names and instant messaging software registration numbers, packaged using Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asian shell companies, making it impossible to cross-check business registration information in official regulatory query systems.

真实案例

• In January 2026, anti-fraud centers in multiple regions reported a counterfeit VAST.AI posing Ponzi scheme. The implicated syndicate utilized fake tokens issued under the name of an AI unicorn that had just completed a billion-scale financing, promoting through a computing power staking dividend model. Victim investors were spread across various regions, with involved amounts reaching tens of millions and being transferred to overseas addresses, currently spreading to several provinces. (Source: [https://www.paiu.cn/article/7924.html](https://www.paiu.cn/article/7924.html))
• In mid-2026, the fake brand Lightning Shark project was launched. The project claimed to issue tokens based on AI computing power for quantitative interest generation, and a large number of victims invested stablecoins for lock-up to vie for dividends. Just three months later, the platform shut down at lightning speed and fled, leaving victims with no recourse for rights protection. On-chain investigations showed that funds had long been washed clean, rebranded, and reopened.
• The Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau officially filed a case against the Zhongsdengming Quantitative AI Financial Management project, with estimated involved funds exceeding 300 million yuan. Self-styled as an AI quantitative investment platform, the project attracted retail investors to deposit and lock-up funds, after which the platform locked up all positions and stopped withdrawals under the pretext of system upgrades, operators fled overseas, victims' funds were plundered, and the App's Chinese servers were completely shut down.
• In early 2025, Forest City in Johor, Malaysia, smashed a fake crypto investment scam syndicate, arresting over three hundred people. The syndicate packaged AI crypto wealth management projects using Southeast Asian shell companies, recruited victims to deposit funds via online high-yield seminars, which were then transferred into overseas fund pools and rapidly lost, with over a hundred people ultimately prosecuted.
• On July 28, 2026, the Johor police in Malaysia announced the crackdown on two cyber scam syndicates hidden in Forest City, Iskandar Puteri, arresting 335 people (mostly foreign nationals) and seizing 313 computers, 1,557 mobile phones, and other criminal equipment. The syndicate used fake cryptocurrency investment and romance scams as bait to defraud overseas citizens. (Source: [https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-forest-city-johor-scam-syndicates-call-centres-6282901](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-forest-city-johor-scam-syndicates-call-centres-6282901))

Official Stance

• Shenzhen Municipal Local Financial Regulation Bureau and the Shenzhen Branch of the People's Bank of China, 2026-06-18, issued the 'Risk Warning on Preventing Illegal Financial Activities Involving Virtual Currencies' (Source: [https://jr.sz.gov.cn/sjrb/xxgk/gzdt/content/post_12849408.html](https://jr.sz.gov.cn/sjrb/xxgk/gzdt/content/post_12849408.html))

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Cross-verify information thoroughly: Always cross-check directly on the official domain and official social media accounts of renowned AI companies to confirm whether there are relevant token issuance or DeFi plans, and never blindly believe favorable news published by single community screenshots or unofficial domain links.
• ✅ Check compliance qualifications: Query blockchain explorers for audited smart contract codes, verify whether the company entity truly holds financial regulatory licenses in its jurisdiction, and refuse personal wallet collection addresses accepting only cryptocurrencies or unaudited smart contract authorizations that can be arbitrarily inflated.
• ✅ Be vigilant against MLM structures: Reject any project mechanism featuring headcount-based rebate and multi-level team differential rewards. Once a promotional model linking fixed high yields with lock-up requirements is discovered, exit immediately and advise others to quit so as not to become bag-holders bearing legal risks.
• ✅ Avoid blind following: Overcome fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) psychology, do not blindly and naively trust wealth management platforms spun off from shell companies just because a certain company has just secured financing, report suspected scam instant messaging groups and URLs to anti-fraud centers, and timely use official interception tools to prevent redirection to fraudulent URLs.