Honeycomb AI Cloud Mining Scam: A Ponzi Scheme Disguised with Forged Computing Power Licenses

Who Gets Targeted

Primarily small and medium-sized investors with some savings but a lack of clarity on AI, blockchain, and the underlying logic of computing power, as well as retail investors seeking passive income. Victims often share psychological vulnerabilities like 'blindly chasing high returns' and 'following the herd.' They are easily misled by forged government licenses, polished app interfaces, and early small-scale dividend payouts, losing their ability to judge the rationality of business logic until the platform is blocked or collapses, leaving them with total losses.

骗局怎么运作

• Packaging and Hype: Fraud rings register shell tech companies that appear legitimate, forge or illegally obtain overseas financial and mining licenses, and build professional-looking 'cloud computing' applications. By recruiting offline agents and online shills, they fabricate 'AI computing power endorsement' articles on social media, using information asymmetry to rebrand traditional Ponzi schemes as cutting-edge technology investments.
• Inducement and Recruitment: Salespeople use obscure jargon like 'cloud computing mining' or 'computing power share buyouts' in WeChat groups or offline seminars to brainwash victims, promising high returns that are detached from reality, such as 'guaranteed daily returns exceeding 1%.' The core narrative is 'embracing the AI wave,' exploiting the anxiety of missing out on the trend while lacking technical knowledge.
• Small-Scale Testing and Payouts: Initially, victims are allowed to invest small amounts and receive high interest payments on time as promised, and are even encouraged to share screenshots of their withdrawals on social media. By leveraging herd mentality and visible high returns, scammers eliminate the victim's final doubts, inducing them to invest tens of times more capital, which is marketed as 'upgrading to a high-power node for greater returns.'
• Lock-in and Extraction: Once the scale of funds reaches a certain level or the new capital chain breaks, the platform suddenly suspends withdrawals, citing 'system maintenance,' 'hacker attacks on the AI computing network,' or 'compliance reviews.' They then force victims to pay 'compliance deposits' or 'computing power unfreezing fees' under ruthless pretexts to drain the victim's final cash flow.
• Collapse and Evidence Destruction: Before victims realize the scam, operators launder funds through cryptocurrency mixers and transfer them overseas, then shut down the app and delete all customer service contact information. The underlying 'cloud computing servers' are merely shell webpages; server data is wiped instantly, and the victim's investment vanishes, leaving behind only an unrecoverable mess.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Promises of risk-free, guaranteed principal with extremely high fixed daily returns that are completely detached from any reasonable range of real-world computing power leasing or cryptocurrency markets.
• 🚩 Claims of holding overseas financial or mining licenses that cannot be verified on the respective government websites, and a refusal to provide physical addresses of mining farms or live footage of servers.
• 🚩 Requirements that funds be transferred to private accounts or unknown shell company accounts rather than third-party regulated escrow platforms with payment and clearing licenses.
• 🚩 Use of typical pyramid-style 'recruitment' commission systems, where the vast majority of new investment funds are used directly to pay interest to existing users and high commissions to team leaders.
• 🚩 Long-term suspension of withdrawals under illegal excuses like 'hacker attacks' or 'regulatory restrictions,' while demanding further transfers for 'deposits' or 'bridge fees'.

真实案例

• Honeycomb AI Cloud Mining Case: According to a 2026 exposé by Project Home, 'Honeycomb AI' claimed to own AI cloud mining rigs and relevant overseas licenses, tricking victims into buying computing shares. Investigations revealed the government licenses displayed were entirely forged, and the so-called mining rigs were virtual data. Victims' funds were never involved in any real computing power flow, and the platform eventually transferred the funds and shut down. (Source: https://www.paiu.cn/article/6573.html)
• Lianhe Intelligent Computing Center Case: As exposed by Panxun.net, this 'computing center hosting dividend' project claimed 110,000 members and operated a dividend-based Ponzi scheme under the guise of AI computing hosting. After the operators embezzled over 100 million, they locked all accounts and fled, leaving a large number of victims unable to withdraw funds and forced to seek offline legal recourse. (Source: https://panxun.vwt.cc/article/6474.html)
• China Zhipu AI Project Case: According to Chapan.cc, 'China Zhipu AI' misappropriated the name of a well-known large model to conduct illegal cryptocurrency speculation, using AI computing investment as a pretext to collect 'intelligence taxes.' The project induced users to keep pouring money in, only to be exposed as a shell Ponzi scheme with no real computing power mining involved. (Source: https://chapan.cc/article/8503.html)

Official Stance

• In February 2026, the People's Bank of China and eight other departments jointly issued the 'Notice on Further Preventing and Disposing of Risks Related to Virtual Currency' (Yinfa [2026] No. 42), explicitly prohibiting the exchange between fiat and virtual currencies and related derivative businesses, warning that so-called 'virtual currency mining' and 'cloud computing investment' are involved in illegal financial activities such as illegal fundraising.
• In August 2026, People's Daily Online issued a 'Risk Warning on Preventing Illegal Financial Activities Involving Virtual Currency,' explicitly warning the public to be vigilant against illegal fundraising and financial scams packaged under new technology names like 'AI computing power' and 'virtual currency mining,' and not to trust promises of high interest returns.
• In April 2026, the Criminal Investigation Bureau of Taiwan, in coordination with local prosecutors and police, investigated a 'mining accelerator' scam, exposing the so-called 'computing hardware acceleration' as a shell scam. This served as a warning to be wary of any virtual currency or AI investment project lacking physical technical support and transparent computing power flow.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify Qualifications and Mining Sites: Demand that the platform provide the physical address of the computing server room and server codes. Verify these through the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's filing system or the websites of relevant overseas regulators. Reject any platform that relies solely on polished PPTs and app interfaces to display its computing layout.
• ✅ Beware of Ultra-High Fixed Returns: Understand the fair market price for current cloud computing leasing and firmly reject any investment plan that promises 'guaranteed principal and interest' with fixed daily returns far exceeding the industry's average gross profit margin.
• ✅ Refuse Non-Custodial Transfers: Any 'computing project' that requires investors to transfer funds directly to personal bank accounts, non-third-party escrow company accounts, or unknown cryptocurrency wallet addresses carries extremely high risk and should be terminated immediately.
• ✅ Build Defenses and Preserve Evidence: If a platform suspends withdrawals under excuses like hacker attacks and demands 'unfreezing fees,' stop all transfers immediately. Preserve chat logs, transfer receipts, and screenshots of the app interface, and report the case to the economic crime investigation department of the public security bureau immediately.