Mock Interview "Bait-and-Switch" Harvest: 99-Yuan Assessments as Bait, Followed by Multi-Layered Traps for Thousands of Yuan in Training and Position Placement Fees

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are predominantly recent graduates, career-switchers, and college students. Unfamiliar with the scoring mechanisms of AI interviews and fearful of expressing themselves poorly on camera, they are easily persuaded to pay for "mock assessments." Job search anxiety makes them susceptible to pitches such as "limited slots available," "guaranteed pass internal referrals," and "one-on-one with big-tech interviewers," mistakenly believing that spending money can bridge information gaps and buy certainty. Another group of students, eager to accumulate internship experience, are trapped by "paid referrals" and "placement fees," sinking deeper through serial fee collections. The core entry point for scammers precisely targets the psychological weakness of "pay first to gain peace of mind."

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Free or low-priced 9.9-yuan "AI mock interview" trial classes are advertised on recruitment platforms and short-video apps, using "real AI interview questions from major tech companies" and "real-time scoring by AI mock officers" as selling points. Job seekers are guided to fill in personal data such as name, educational background, and job preferences. The sales pitch runs: "You are only one mock interview away from an offer," with the goal of filtering out targeted individuals willing to pay for assessments.
• Step 2: A professional-looking "Interview Competence Assessment Report" is generated using off-the-shelf AI tools, assigning low scores in areas such as expression logic and job matching, accompanied by anxiety-inducing comparative data against "peers," creating a sense of urgency that "you are falling short, but it can be remedied." Although the report appears objective, no human interviewers are involved, and all conclusions are generated in batches from preset templates.
• Step 3: Sales consultants follow up one-on-one, pitching thousands to tens of thousands of yuan for "VIP mock interview packages," "expert 1-on-1 critiques," or "guaranteed offer referral classes," claiming that the evaluation teachers come from tier-one tech company HR teams, and releasing "the last three slots" for a limited time. The entire pitch revolves around manufacturing scarcity and authority, inducing job seekers to pay immediately to lock in a slot.
• Step 4: After payment, the actual service is severely downgraded. The so-called expert critiques are mostly AI-generated template-based suggestions, or read off scripts by part-time workers unfamiliar with the industry; some agencies require the signing of non-disclosure agreements under the pretext of "protecting internal question banks," forbidding victims from discussing service content externally, buying time for subsequent ghosting and delayed refunds.
• Step 5: Victims are guided to purchase additional training courses, paid referrals, or "placement fees" under the excuse that "your ability is still far from sufficient," or even arranged to work at fake "internship locations" and sign forged agreements, completing the "hiring-to-training" closed loop. After paying thousands of yuan, victims often dare not speak out until the promised employment/offer never materializes, at which point they realize they have been scammed.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Interview simulation or assessment services charge more than a few hundred yuan and promise absolute outcomes such as "guaranteed pass," "guaranteed offer," or "pay only after successful internal referral."
• 🚩 The identities of so-called "experts" and "major tech company interviewers" cannot be verified on recruitment platforms, corporate websites, or professional social networks, and the agency refuses to provide verifiable employment history.
• 🚩 The assessment report is highly templated, with multiple sections sharing identical phrasing and sentence structures to those found online, or clearly generated by AI in one click, lacking detailed follow-up questions targeting personal experience.
• 🚩 Payment is required before scheduling the "interview" time, without providing formal contracts or invoices, accepting payments only through personal QR codes or private bank accounts.
• 🚩 Frequent urging for payment under the pretext of "internal materials" or "closing slots soon," accompanied by confidentiality clauses restricting victims from verifying with third parties or filing complaints.

真实案例

• In April 2026, a job seeker complained to a recruitment platform that after paying about 2,000 yuan in "AI anime short-drama training fees," the agency's promised "monthly income of 100,000 yuan" never materialized, and the course merely pieced together pre-recorded content. Sina Tech reported on the matter under the headline "Pay 2,000 yuan tuition to make AI anime short dramas and earn 100,000 yuan," and recruitment platform officials classified it as a typical pitch for a new type of "hiring-to-training" scam.
• In August 2026, Tencent News reported that police dismantled a "fake work shift" fraud ring, arresting 11 suspects. The ring charged job seekers exorbitant fees under the names of "internal placement" and "fake interviews," signed forged agreements with them, and arranged for them to work at fake "internship locations," packaging the job-seeking process into a realistic onboarding scenario to commit continuous fraud.
• According to a media investigation reprinted by NetEase, within a "paid internship" fraud industrial chain, more than 20 shell companies defrauded over 5,000 students of more than 24 million yuan through forged internal referrals, interviews, and internship offers. Most victims were college juniors and seniors, and some did not discover that their internship certificates and recommendation letters were forged until graduation season.
• In July 2026, according to a media investigation report reprinted by NetEase News, a paid internship scam industrial chain used shell companies to forge internal referrals, interviews, and internship certificates. Reviewed by the Zhuji City Procur检察院 (Procuratorate), the masterminds defrauded 24 million yuan. Over 5,000 college students and recent graduates nationwide were scammed, and 50 defendants, including the mastermind, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment by the court for the crime of fraud. (Source: [https://www.163.com/dy/article/L1G662300530IU8N.html](https://www.163.com/dy/article/L1G662300530IU8N.html))
• In March 2026, CNR.cn investigated and reported on the AI auto-livestreaming sales fraud case involving Guangzhou Qingshou Intelligent Information Co., Ltd. After trainees paid 5,210 yuan to sign a cooperation agreement, they only received about 1,000 yuan in commissions. In January 2026, Guangzhou Panyu police filed a case to seal the company on suspicion of fraud, and the promise of daily automatic video publishing for targeted traffic delivery was ultimately unfulfilled. (Source: [https://news.bjd.com.cn/2026/03/15/11632325.shtml](https://news.bjd.com.cn/2026/03/15/11632325.shtml))

Official Stance

• In March 2026, Jingbao.com, operated by the Beijing Daily Newspaper Group, published an investigative report titled "Paying Nearly 10,000 Yuan in Tuition, Earning Only Hundreds in Commissions," issuing a consumer warning regarding the chaos in "AI auto-livestreaming" training and reminding job seekers to be wary of the "high tuition + empty promises" model.
• In April 2026, BOSS Zhipin officially disassembled a new type of "hiring-to-training" scam for the media, explicitly pointing out that pitches such as "pay before taking orders," "earn over 10,000 yuan a month learning AI," and "make 10,000 yuan making AI anime short dramas" are typical recruitment scam signals, and job seekers encountering them should immediately terminate communication.
• In August 2026, public security organs issued a warning when reporting on "fake work shift" fraud cases: no regular entity's recruitment and interview process will charge job seekers placement fees, security deposits, or training fees, and any behavior requiring money transfers prior to onboarding can be identified as fraud.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Keep firmly in mind the baseline that "recruitment and interviews are free, and no money is transferred upon onboarding." Regular companies will not require job seekers to pay any fees under the names of mock interviews, internal referrals, or retention, and any demand for upfront payment should be met with immediate refusal.
• ✅ Use the "National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System" mini-program to query an institution's industrial and commercial registration information, business scope, and judicial litigation records to verify whether it possesses professional agency or training qualifications, remaining vigilant against companies established for less than a year with frequently changing legal representatives.
• ✅ Maintain a rational attitude toward AI mock interview reports and avoid impulse payments driven by low-score anxiety; you may ask the other party to provide human expert resumes and forward report excerpts to practitioners in the target industry to verify whether template-based phrasing is being used.
• ✅ Be sure to sign a written contract before payment, clarifying service content, evaluator identity, and refund conditions, prioritizing corporate bank accounts for payments and requesting invoices; save chat records, transfer vouchers, and promise screenshots, and immediately report to the platform and dial 110 or 12315 upon discovering abnormalities.