AI High-Paying Job 'Recruitment-to-Training' Loan Scam: Selling Courses Under the Guise of Interviews and Inducing Loans

Who Gets Targeted

The main victims are recent graduates, unemployed young people, and job seekers hoping to switch into AI and internet industries. They generally lack industry knowledge, harbor high-salary fantasies about hot roles such as 'artificial intelligence' and 'cloud computing,' and are eager to get an offer as soon as possible under employment pressure. Scammers exploit their shame about admitting insufficient ability and their fear of missing out: first belittling their skills to create anxiety, then offering the illusionary promise that 'training leads to a job.' Many are financially strapped and are induced to take out installment loans; ultimately they neither complete the course nor get a job, and are left with tens of thousands of yuan in debt.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Post hot jobs such as AI, programming, and cloud computing on recruitment websites and social platforms, using banners like 'no major restrictions,' 'zero experience,' 'monthly salary over ten thousand yuan,' and 'get hired upon interview' to cast a wide net for traffic, attracting job seekers to submit resumes and attend offline interviews at designated office buildings.
• Step 2: During the interview, deliberately belittle the job seeker's abilities. The interviewer does not discuss job responsibilities, but repeatedly emphasizes 'your skills do not meet the company's requirements' and 'the industry threshold is very high now,' creating ability anxiety and laying the groundwork for later course sales.
• Step 3: Then the conversation shifts and presents a solution, claiming the company has talent-directed placement cooperation with multiple large enterprises; as long as the candidate attends pre-employment training and passes the assessment, they can directly join the company, promising 'a monthly salary of seven to eight thousand yuan' and 'guaranteed employment,' and emphasizing limited slots to create urgency.
• Step 4: Quote a training fee of tens of thousands of yuan. When the job seeker says they have no money, immediately recommend 'learn now, pay later' or 'installment payment'; in reality, this guides them to apply for a high-interest training loan on a consumer finance platform or online lending app, with the pitch that 'one month's salary after starting work will repay it.'
• Step 5: The training content is shoddy or the course is simply not held; the claimed partner companies cannot be found. When job seekers demand refunds, they encounter stall tactics and high penalty deductions. Some agencies change office addresses after collecting payment or simply deregister and abscond.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Legitimate companies never charge job seekers any fees in recruitment. Any requirement to pay training fees, deposits, uniform fees, or file setup fees before onboarding is suspected of violation.
• 🚩 Recruitment and training institutions are mixed into one. The interview location bears the sign of a recruiting company, but what is signed is a training agreement and loan contract; inconsistency in the parties is a typical signal.
• 🚩 Hot AI jobs marketed with 'no major restrictions, zero experience, guaranteed high salary' clearly do not match real market recruitment conditions.
• 🚩 Inducing applicants to use third-party online lending platforms to pay training fees in installments, while deliberately downplaying interest and default clauses.
• 🚩 The interview does not discuss job details or conduct technical assessment; the entire process revolves around oppressive language such as 'your abilities are insufficient, you need training.'
• 🚩 The company was established recently, has zero or very few social insurance participants, and no information related to its claimed partner companies can be found in the business registration system.

真实案例

• On March 31, 2026, the Ministry of Justice Smart Legal Popularization Platform reposted an investigative report by journalists: a 'headhunting company' used high-salary cloud computing positions, free pre-job training, and guaranteed employment as bait to induce job-seeking college students to pay tens of thousands of yuan in training fees. Multiple people fell into the 'recruitment-to-training' scam and were burdened with training loans.
• In July 2026, media and the Xiaofeibao platform reported: a job seeker received an interview call from Yunnan Jiechang Information; after passing the interview, they were required to pay a 22800 yuan training fee. The other party used pitches such as 'monthly salary of seven to eight thousand yuan,' 'train first, pay later,' and 'free 10-day trial' to induce them to take out a high-interest loan; the recruiting account was later confirmed by the platform to have long ceased cooperative use.
• In September 2026, the Shaanxi reporting website and others reposted an exposé of job scam routines: criminals used hot positions in AI and audio/video editing to attract traffic at job fairs. After job seekers' abilities were belittled, they paid for so-called pre-job training, only to discover afterward that the promised partner companies did not exist and there was no way to get a refund.
• A 2025 Hong Kong job scam report: fraudsters skipped the normal recruitment process and claimed to hire based solely on text chats via messaging apps, then collected money on the pretext of training or deposits required before work. Multiple job seekers lost their savings.

Official Stance

• On March 31, 2026, the Ministry of Justice Smart Legal Popularization Platform published an investigation into chaos in the online recruitment market, naming the 'recruitment-to-training' scam that induces college students to pay tens of thousands of yuan in training fees and take on training loans, and reminding job seekers to identify it carefully.
• In September 2026, the Shaanxi reporting website published 'Still Need to Pay "Greasing Fees" or "Training Fees" to Find a Job? Job Scam Routines Exposed,' breaking down the five-step recruitment-to-training pitch and noting reporting channels.
• In July 2026, media together with the Xiaofeibao platform reported the incident in which Yunnan Jiechang Information charged a 22800 yuan training fee at interview. The recruitment platform responded that it would verify and reminded users to be wary of pay-to-start-work scams.
• The Interim Regulations on the Human Resources Market explicitly provide that recruitment information published by employers and human resources service agencies must not contain fraudulent content and must not collect property from workers. Local human resources and social security departments have accordingly continued to carry out special cleanup and rectification campaigns.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Before job hunting, check the recruiter's business registration, establishment date, and number of social insurance participants on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System official website, call the official phone number of the partner company it claims to verify whether targeted commissioned training truly exists, and conveniently check whether the company has labor arbitration and unpaid wage complaint records.
• ✅ Stick to the bottom line that 'job seeking involves no payment'; refuse directly and end contact for any fee charged in the name of onboarding, becoming a regular employee, or training.
• ✅ Do not sign any training agreement or loan contract tied to recruitment. If you see wording such as installment payment or online lending app, leave immediately.
• ✅ Judge authenticity through the interview process: legitimate companies assess job skills and introduce work content during interviews. If the entire process belittles your abilities and ultimately lands on paying for training, it is a scam.
• ✅ Keep screenshots of recruitment ads, chat records, contracts, and transfer receipts. If scammed, promptly complain to the local human resources and social security department and labor inspection team and report to the public security organ. If training loans are involved, also report to financial regulators.