AI Fortune-Telling and Luck-Changing Scam: Free Assessments for Traffic Generation, High-Priced Amulet Harvesting

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are predominantly women aged 25 to 50 experiencing emotional anxiety or career bottlenecks, alongside some middle-aged and elderly men and young people curious about metaphysics. Their shared psychological vulnerability is the urgent need for external validation when facing uncertainty, believing that 'free assessments' offer low-cost psychological comfort. Once hooked by pain points generated by scripts—such as poor recent fortune or impending disasters—they easily fall prey to panic and wishful thinking, continuously purchasing fortune-changing items, rituals, or paid courses. Some users, having browsed horoscope and tarot content on social platforms for a long time, are precisely targeted by algorithms and recommended to scam accounts, further lowering their threshold of trust.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Traffic generation through short video or social platform advertisements such as 'Free Palm Reading' and 'Free Eight-Charaters (Bazi) Assessment'. Fraud syndicates operate multiple accounts in bulk, using AI-generated visual materials like Taoist temples, paper talismans, and incense burners to package themselves as real Taoist priests, guiding users to add WeChat or join private domain groups with scripts emphasizing 'not charging a single penny, it's all about destiny.'
• Step 2: Private chats require users to send palm photos, birth dates (Bazi), or recent photos. Operating staff actually use AI fortune-telling software or large language models to search and generate generic numerology text, then apply fixed templates to reply, with common phrases including 'Your financial fortune has experienced major fluctuations in the past three years,' 'There are always petty people causing trouble in your relationships,' or 'You are clashing with Tai Sui (the Grand Duke of Jupiter) this year.'
• Step 3: Recommendation of paid items under the guise of 'resolving disasters,' 'attracting romantic fortune,' or 'replenishing the wealth treasury.' Initial charges are typically kept between 199 and 499 yuan under the name of 'destiny-connection price,' while hinting that failure to resolve the issue promptly will lead to more severe health or financial loss risks the following month, creating a sense of urgency.
• Step 4: After payment, users receive so-called 'exclusive fortune talismans,' 'consecrated prayer beads,' or watch 'ritual videos.' The actually seized fortune talismans are mostly printed in batches by printers, and the ritual videos are pre-recorded generic footage. The content received by different users is completely identical, yet it is packaged as 'customized according to Bazi.'
• Step 5: Launching secondary harvesting for hesitant or questioning users. Customer service uses titles like 'Senior Brother' or 'Teacher' to build rapport, asking users to check in with daily feedback and share posts on WeChat Moments, or recommending friends and family to add WeChat for 'doubled blessings.' Paid users are marked as high-intent groups and channeled into more expensive 'lifetime luck-changing packages' or 'one-on-one remote empowerment,' with multi-round scams per person reaching tens of thousands of yuan.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Using 'free assessment' as a gimmick, but immediately guiding users to add private WeChat accounts and refusing to publicly display identity credentials on the platform.
• 🚩 When questioned further, the fortune-telling results turn into templated, one-size-fits-all content that can still fit the same script even if the birth date is changed.
• 🚩 Quickly throwing out disaster warnings, such as 'recent bloody disasters' or 'third-party interference in marriage,' and emphasizing that only payment can resolve them.
• 🚩 Pushing 'exclusive customized' fortune talismans, consecrated items, or ritual videos, while failing to provide any physical proof or personalized differentiation.
• 🚩 Requiring users to share posts on WeChat Moments and pull friends and family into groups to enjoy discounts, showing clear pyramid-like recruitment characteristics.

真实案例

• In December 2025, Shanghai police disclosed an online 'fake Taoist' AI fortune-telling case, where a fraud syndicate defrauded more than 50,000 people of a total of over 3 million yuan within half a year. The syndicate used AI search to generate response scripts, the so-called exclusive fortune talismans were actually printed paper scraps, and some members were even minors, resulting in multiple individuals being legally subjected to criminal compulsory measures. (Source: [https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20251229A06VMZ00](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20251229A06VMZ00))
• In July 2026, CNR reported that procuratorial organs cracked 4 cases of online superstition fraud. The suspects all used short video and live-streaming platforms to publish content such as 'free face reading' and 'fortune-telling and luck-changing' to generate traffic, and then directed victims into private domains to carry out serial charges, with over 130 people held legally accountable for criminal responsibility. (Source: [https://www.cnr.cn/mspd/yw/20260729/t20260729_527735333.shtml](https://www.cnr.cn/mspd/yw/20260729/t20260729_527735333.shtml))
• Consumer Daily's 3·15 series reports in 2026 exposed a horoscope consultation app whose users were induced to spend nearly 300,000 yuan within a year. Starting from a free astrological chart report, users were progressively guided to purchase high-priced services such as 'live audio analysis,' 'magnetic field cleansing,' and 'customized crystals.' Afterward, it was discovered that the so-called analysts were not certified psychological counselors, and some responses were generated by backend knowledge base templates.

Official Stance

• The Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a warning through the 'Nine O'Clock Tonight' column: fortune-telling relies on software and ritual videos are faked; behind the so-called 'free palm reading' lies an organized online fraud, reminding the public not to blindly trust online numerology services.
• In December 2025, Shanghai police publicly disclosed the details of the AI fortune-telling and luck-changing scam, pointing out that exclusive fortune talismans were printed items and response scripts were generated by AI search, emphasizing that such behavior constitutes suspected fraud.
• In March 2026, Consumer Daily included horoscope consulting platforms in its 3·15 series reports, pointing out that some apps generated traffic through free assessments and then implemented tiered induced consumption, involving suspected false advertising and consumer fraud.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Maintain vigilance toward any online services starting with 'free assessment' or 'destiny-connecting face reading,' and do not provide sensitive information such as palm photos, ID numbers, or home addresses to unfamiliar accounts.
• ✅ Require the other party to provide proof of religious activity venues registered with the civil affairs department or verifiable qualifications such as psychological counselor credentials, and refuse remote services like 'rituals' or 'consecration' conducted solely through WeChat chat.
• ✅ Whenever facing combined scripts involving 'disaster warning + paid resolution,' pause payment first and consult family members or community police officers to avoid making independent decisions under panic.
• ✅ Retain all chat histories, transfer vouchers, and photos of 'customized items.' Once discovering that multiple users have received identical content, immediately report it through 12315 or public security organs.