Fake AI Interview Assessment Platform: Fabricated remote positions at major companies leading to disappearance after collecting deposits and equipment fees

Who Gets Targeted

The main victims include recent college graduates, young people looking to transition into AI-related roles, white-collar workers who were laid off and are eager to re-enter the workforce, and individuals seeking remote side hustles. These groups are generally experiencing job-seeking anxiety, lack experience in distinguishing new occupations such as "AI trainers" or "remote data positions," and are easily hooked by pitches like "direct recruitment by major tech firms, high daily pay, work from home." When fraudsters present seemingly professional AI interview systems and scoring reports, victims tend to think, "The platform is legitimate, it's just that my own abilities aren't good enough." Driven by a mix of guilt and reluctance to give up, they pay the so-called deposits, equipment fees, or training fees, and often make additional investments afterward in an attempt to "earn back" the money they previously spent.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Purchase traffic on short-form video and recruitment platforms, running ads such as "Remote AI trainer positions, 300 yuan daily pay, no experience required." The copywriting intentionally taps into the 2026 AI recruitment trend, impersonating or fabricating collaborations with well-known companies to guide job seekers to private social media accounts using pitches like "This position goes through an internal referral channel, no need to spam resumes."
• Step 2: Send a counterfeit "AI interview assessment platform" link featuring modules such as login, video Q&A, and automated scoring. The interface closely mimics legitimate AI interview products to create a sense of high technology and legitimacy, using pitches like "All our candidates must pass the AI initial screening to protect the efficiency of both parties."
• Step 3: After the interview, the system inevitably generates a score "close to the hiring threshold but deficient in a certain capability." Subsequently, a so-called HR specialist informs the candidate that "spots are limited, and you must first pay a position deposit, dedicated equipment deposit, or targeted training fee to lock in the spot," using pitches like "This fee is fully refunded after your first full month of employment; the company isn't trying to make money off you."
• Step 4: Collect payments via personal QR codes or third-party small merchant channels, where the payee completely differs from the promotional entity. Some versions also induce job seekers to use installment payments or sign electronic "training agreements," framing the scam as a consumer dispute to evade criminal liability, using pitches like "With installments, it's only a few hundred yuan per period, and you'll break even on your very first day on the job."
• Step 5: Once the number of paying individuals reaches a certain scale, customer service gradually goes offline, the interview website is shut down, social media accounts are canceled, and the gang reinvents itself under a new brand name and persona. Some gangs even package and resell job seekers' resumes and facial video recordings to downstream gray-market operators for secondary monetization.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Any interview or onboarding process that requires payment of fees under any name—including deposits, equipment retainers, training fees, material fees, or physical examination fees—is a high-risk signal. Legitimate enterprise recruitment never charges job seekers.
• 🚩 The entire interview consists only of text customer service and automated pages, with no human interviewer available for video call identity verification, and they refuse to provide a corporate landline or physical office address.
• 🚩 Payment accounts are personal codes or small merchants completely unrelated to the advertised company, coupled with pressure tactics like "spots are closing immediately" to manufacture urgency.
• 🚩 The domain registration time for the AI interview platform is extremely short, lacks ICP filing, or the filing entity does not match the advertised company. No authentic corporate partnership announcements can be found in search results.
• 🚩 Job responsibilities are vague yet promise high pay, such as "operate the AI system for hundreds of yuan a day," with skill requirements and salary levels that obviously do not match.
• 🚩 The company cannot be found in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, or its business scope does not include human resources services and it holds no human resources service license.

真实案例

• 2026 CCTV exposure of similar AI training traps: Bad actors used AI-related roles and courses as bait to carry out multi-layered fee collection, scamming over a thousand consumers nationwide with amounts exceeding 1 million yuan. The report detailed the standard playbook of "first creating an illusion of legitimacy, then collecting fees in stages, and finally disappearing."
• In a series of media reports on "recruitment-to-training" scams, police in places like Zhejiang cracked down on gangs that lured job seekers into paying high training fees under the guise of recruitment. The tactics matched those described in this entry: fabricating job requirements, conducting formalistic interviews, charging fees under the pretext of insufficient capability, and ultimately vanishing, with victims mostly being recent college graduates.
• In multiple publicly reported remote part-time job scams, a telecom fraud gang impersonated tech companies recruiting "data annotators" or "AI trainers," requiring job seekers to advance equipment fees or task deposits. They initially returned small commissions to build trust, and once multiple people invested large sums of money, they shut down the platform and fled, involving victims across multiple regions nationwide.

Official Stance

• 2026 CCTV news reports exposed AI training fee traps, warning that any recruitment process charging fees under any name is a scam, involving over a thousand consumers and more than 1 million yuan.
• Human resources and social security departments have repeatedly issued warnings: Employers recruiting workers must not withhold identification documents, demand security deposits, or collect property under other names. Job seekers encountering fee-based recruitment can file complaints and reports with labor supervision departments.
• The National Anti-Fraud Center and local public security organs have repeatedly warned of the high incidence of "recruitment-related scams," reminding job seekers to be alert to part-time and onboarding traps that require paying registration fees, training fees, or deposits, and encouraging them to report false recruitment information through platforms such as 12321.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify dual entities: Check the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System to verify whether the recruiter and platform genuinely exist and hold human resources service licenses, and check the target enterprise's official website to confirm whether the position actually exists. Any company that cannot be found must be regarded as a scam. During verification, check the shareholder structure and whether the company has been listed in the abnormal business operations directory.
• ✅ Adhere strictly to a zero-payment bottom line: Refuse any transfers requested prior to onboarding under any pretext. The costs of training, equipment, and physical examinations for legitimate enterprises are borne by the company; there is no such thing as "pay first, refund later."
• ✅ Rely only on corporate and official channels: Treat recruitment information published on enterprise official websites and official social accounts as authoritative. Only accept corporate accounts for payments that can be invoiced, and directly block personal QR codes and third-party small merchant channels.
• ✅ Preserve evidence and report promptly: Save chat logs, transfer receipts, interview page screenshots, and website URLs. Once a loss of contact is discovered, immediately call 110, submit materials to the online illegal crime reporting platform, and simultaneously file a transaction dispute with the payment platform.
• ✅ Protect personal information: Do not submit front and back photos of ID cards, facial videos, or bank card information to unfamiliar platforms to prevent them from being resold for secondary use in creating accounts or applying for loans.