AI Matching Report Funnels Victims into Central SOE Internal Referral Scam: Report Claims High Fit, but No Job After Payment

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are mainly recent graduates, career changers, and young people eager to enter central SOEs, mostly aged 22 to 35. They generally lack understanding of the public recruitment process at central SOEs and mistakenly believe that 'AI matching + internal channels' can bypass fierce competition, showing obvious job-hunting anxiety and a desire for shortcuts. Some victims' families even took on online loans for them. The scam not only caused tens of thousands of yuan in economic losses but also made job seekers miss the spring recruitment window, causing severe psychological trauma. Scammers exploit this 'information gap + anxiety' by using seemingly professional AI reports to build trust before harvesting victims.

骗局怎么运作

• Place ads on recruitment apps and short-video platforms for 'AI-powered matching with high-paying central SOE positions,' with the pitch: 'Just upload your resume, and AI will automatically generate an exclusive matching report, giving you direct access to internal channels at State Grid, PetroChina, and others.' After job seekers enter their mobile number, education, and work experience, they are tagged as 'high-intent customers,' and their information is simultaneously transferred to a so-called career consultant's private-domain community for in-depth nurturing.
• The consultant uses templated tools to generate a seemingly professional 'AI matching report,' showing a '92% fit' between the job seeker and a certain central SOE position, along with industry salary comparisons and a promotion roadmap, creating the illusion that it would be a pity to miss out. The report deliberately omits the specific job number and application entry point, laying the groundwork for the later claim that internal handling is needed, while also making victims mistakenly believe the platform truly has data support.
• The consultant then claims that competition for this position is fierce and there are only 3 internal slots, and demands payment of a 'position matching fee' or 'referral fee,' usually 50,000 to 100,000 yuan, with the pitch: 'This money is for managing relationships and will be refunded within one week after you start.' To allay concerns, they show a forged 'internal recommendation letter' or screenshots of a 'cooperation agreement' with an employer, and stress that the slots could be taken at any time.
• Payment channels deliberately avoid corporate accounts, requiring transfers to personal bank cards, WeChat, or Alipay, and even guiding victims to borrow through loan apps. At the same time, they sign a 'service agreement' stating 'full refund if not employed' as psychological reassurance, but the second party in the agreement is often a shell company, and the payee is not the contracting entity, leaving room to refuse refunds later.
• After payment, they enter stalling mode, with excuses ranging from 'the political review process is underway' and 'the leader is away on business and needs to sign' to 'the position is frozen and will be arranged in the next batch,' typically delaying for 3 to 6 months. If job seekers press for answers during this period, the consultant instead claims there is a problem with your materials and induces additional payments such as 'expedited fees' or 'rebooking fees,' resulting in a second harvest and dragging victims deeper.
• When victims discover they cannot start the job and demand a refund, the other party either disappears or withholds most of the money on the grounds that service costs have already been incurred, and even persuades victims to refer friends for priority arrangement, turning them into downstream recruits. Some gangs disband their communities and deregister their companies before victims call the police, then continue scamming under a new guise, making rights protection extremely difficult.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The AI matching report has no specific job number, official company seal, or authorization document, only vague percentages like '92% fit.' A legitimate recruitment system would never notify candidates in this way.
• 🚩 They ask for fees to be transferred to a personal bank card, WeChat, or Alipay rather than the platform's corporate account. They promise 'guaranteed employment' or 'refund if not hired' but cannot provide a written labor contract or the company HR's contact information—everything is verbal.
• 🚩 Legitimate central SOE recruitment never charges any fees. Any charge under the names of 'referral fee,' 'quota fee,' 'position matching fee,' or 'deposit' is a scam, no matter how professional the pitch.
• 🚩 The entire process is conducted in private-domain communities or by phone; they refuse video identity verification, do not provide official corporate recruitment links or official website application entry points, and only send screenshots and forged documents.
• 🚩 They use phrases such as 'limited slots, deadline this week, miss it and wait another year' to create urgency, pushing job seekers to complete transfers within a short time, leaving no time to verify or think.
• 🚩 The so-called career consultant's chat style is highly templated, their social media feed is full of 'successful onboarding screenshots' and 'thank-you letters,' and they cannot provide any callable corporate landline number.

真实案例

• In March 2026, in a Guangming Online investigation into spring recruitment job traps, a job seeker, referred to as Mr. A, saw an ad on a short-video platform for AI matching with central SOE positions. After paying a 60,000 yuan 'referral fee,' he waited for months and never received an onboarding notice. Investigation found that the company had no real recruitment channels and relied solely on forged cooperation documents to scam people.
• In 2026, a Toutiao reposted report: a job seeker spent 100,000 yuan to buy a 'power grid position.' Three months later, what came was not an onboarding notice but a call from the police. The police bulletin showed that the 'position' was fabricated by a fraud gang; the gang involved has been arrested, and victims were spread across multiple provinces.
• On August 29, 2026, China News Service reported a 'job-seeking fraud' funneling case: a gang posted false high-paying job information on recruitment platforms, funneled job seekers to fraud dens, and then defrauded them of money under the names of 'referral fees' and 'training fees.' Ten suspects were criminally detained. (Source: https://www.chinanews.com.cn/fz/2026/08-29/10686276.shtml)
• In April 2026, the People's Procuratorate of Chongming District, Shanghai, pushed for the investigation and prosecution of a 'scheme-based' employment agency. The agency claimed to cooperate with 300 employers but, after charging high service fees, could not provide any real positions; multiple job seekers were defrauded. (Source: https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-04-27/doc-inhvxpih9143676.shtml)

Official Stance

• Published 'High-Salary Referrals Hide Traps: Recruitment-to-Training Scams Target Job Seekers—An Investigation into Chaos in the Online Recruitment Market,' explicitly warning that phrases such as 'high-salary referral' and 'AI matching' have become funneling tools for recruitment-to-training scams, and that job seekers should verify positions through official corporate channels.
• Published 'Why Central SOE Internal Referral Scams Keep Succeeding—A Spring Recruitment Season Job Trap Investigation,' exposing the modus operandi of lawbreakers who charge high fees under the guise of central SOE internal referrals while having no real positions.
• Issued a progress announcement on the special governance of spring recruitment 'recruitment-to-training' scams, with more than 12,800 violating accounts banned cumulatively, warning job seekers to be wary of charges under the names of 'training fees' and 'referral fees.'
• Published 'Pay to Get a Government/Public Institution Post? Beware: It is Not Landing Safely but Getting Scammed,' warning that so-called channels requiring hundreds of thousands of yuan to join the power grid or military civilian staff are all frauds; multiple people have been defrauded, and relevant suspects have been subject to criminal coercive measures.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Use official channels only: submit resumes through corporate official websites, the SASAC recruitment platform, the State Grid recruitment platform, and other official systems. Refuse any paid service claiming to offer 'internal referrals.'
• ✅ Refuse private transfers: if anyone asks you to transfer to a personal bank card, WeChat, Alipay, or use a loan to pay a 'referral fee,' immediately stop communicating and report it to the recruitment platform.
• ✅ Cross-verify: use the company's official HR phone number found online to verify job information, and check whether the job number provided can be found in the official recruitment system. If it cannot be found, it is forged.
• ✅ Keep evidence: preserve chat records, transfer receipts, contracts and agreements, and screenshots of the AI report. If you notice anything suspicious, immediately call 96110 or 110 to report it, and simultaneously complain to the recruitment platform to have the account taken down.
• ✅ Install the 'National Anti-Fraud Center' app and enable call alerts. When you receive messages about 'referrals, guaranteed pass, refund if not passed,' first verify through official channels and do not trust any 'limited slots' pitch.