Shenzhen Zhongshengming AI Quantitative Wealth Management Scam: Promising AI Stock Trading with Monthly Returns Exceeding 150%, Actually a Ponzi Scheme with Backend Digit Manipulation and Fund Locking

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are predominantly middle-aged retail investors aged 35 to 60, including retirees and first-tier city white-collar workers who generally possess some investment experience but lack basic common sense regarding AI and quantitative models, having experienced stock market volatility and eager to find a stable channel to double their money. Psychological weaknesses concentrate on three aspects: first, a mysterious worship of AI stock selection, mistakenly believing that quantitative trading can yield risk-free arbitrage; second, herd mentality, stimulated by shills in live-streaming rooms taking turns posting profit screenshots, triggering anxiety and greed; third, the sunk cost effect, where depositing funds immediately leads to fund locking and delayed withdrawal reviews, causing victims to instead add margins under customer service guidance in an attempt to unlock funds, ultimately resulting in pensions and savings being wiped out instantly.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Traffic generation and customer acquisition. Scammers post get-rich-quick rhetoric through short videos and live-streaming rooms claiming AI stock trading monthly returns exceed 150%, with hosts claiming to be former Wall Street quantitative teams returning home to start businesses, asserting that their exclusively developed AI stock selection model can automatically capture limit-up stocks, and arranging shills in communities to post fake profit screenshots daily, guiding viewers to download a so-called quantitative trading app and add a dedicated advisor on WeChat.
• Step 2: Small-scale testing and backend number modification. Investors' initial deposits typically range from 10,000 to 50,000 RMB. The app interface simulates real brokerage market conditions, but actual funds never enter the securities market, instead flowing directly into private accounts controlled by scammers. The system backend manually modifies figures to generate fake positions and floating profits, allowing users to see 8% to 12% returns in the first week and successfully withdraw them, building trust in the AI model.
• Step 3: Upgrading deposits and fund-locking traps. Advisors pressure users using rhetoric that market conditions are improving and model upgrades require a larger capital pool, inducing users to deposit 300,000 to 1,000,000 RMB to reach VIP tiers, promising unlocked higher return privileges. Once large funds arrive, the app immediately pops up prompts such as system risk control audit or account abnormalities, the withdrawal button turns gray or displays reviewing, and customer service prohibits fund withdrawal under the pretext of requiring a 20% margin or supplementary tax payments.
• Step 4: Community stabilization and delayed harvesting. The manipulation gang posts delay announcements in communities, forging regulatory documents claiming they are cooperating with the Securities Regulatory Bureau, while setting up different tiered groups to isolate those still willing to deposit, using split accounts to restore withdrawals as bait to induce secondary additional investments. For those who resolutely demand refunds, they adopt a cold-treatment approach or directly kick them out of group chats, leaving investors with no recourse for recovery.
• Step 5: Shell-switching reboot and evidence destruction. When the capitalization scheme is on the verge of collapse, the gang shuts down app servers and clears backend data, dissolving all communities. The same operators immediately change names and domain names to relaunch online, clearing all investment records and chat screenshots of victims, using a new brand to scout the next batch of users, forming a periodic shell-switching reboot cycle that makes investor rights defense and evidence collection even more difficult.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Promising a fixed daily return of 3% or a monthly return exceeding 150%, far exceeding the reasonable return range of any legitimate quantitative fund, while claiming zero drawdown.
• 🚩 Requiring the download of an independent app not listed on official app stores or scanning a QR code to install so-called quantitative trading software, where market data within the app is inconsistent with regular brokerage interfaces.
• 🚩 Deposit collection accounts are private accounts or shell company accounts rather than corporate accounts of licensed institutions holding securities business licenses, and the app fails to provide fund manager qualification numbers filed with the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
• 🚩 Communities are filled with dedicated advisors posting scheduled daily trading screenshots, with profile pictures uniformly set to professional suit photos, group member speech is strictly controlled, and doubters are immediately muted or removed from group chats and cut off from contact.
• 🚩 Requiring upfront fees such as margin deposits and personal income tax upon withdrawal, with system error and risk control audit prompt timings matching users' withdrawal attempts perfectly.
• 🚩 The platform frequently changes names, with past brands linked to the same operators, announcing a reboot with a brand new domain name and continuing operations shortly after a collapse.

真实案例

• In March 2026, a 21st Century Business Herald reporter investigated and exposed an AI stock trading capitalization scheme scam, where a victim invested 1.6 million RMB and lost everything, noting that the relevant platform claimed to obtain monthly returns exceeding 150% through AI quantitative models while actual funds never entered the stock market. (Source: [https://m.21jingji.com/article/20260314/herald/026d82f8dad200fe3f6ca57f106e5fa6.html](https://m.21jingji.com/article/20260314/herald/026d82f8dad200fe3f6ca57f106e5fa6.html))
• In June 2026, the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau officially filed a criminal investigation into the Zhongshengming quantitative AI wealth management scheme. The platform completely locked funds and prohibited user withdrawals, with estimated involved funds exceeding 300 million RMB. On June 12, 2026, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau simultaneously released a risk warning document clearly classifying AI quantitative stock selection as an illegal stock-picking scheme. (Source: [https://www.bashou.cc/article/6151.html](https://www.bashou.cc/article/6151.html))
• Public reports show that Huijing Quantitative (Huijing Quant) claimed daily returns of 3% to users, using a three-tier commission rebate referral mechanism for member tiers to induce the development of downlines. User funds deposited appeared in the app backend as virtual numbers that could be directly zeroed out by operators at any time, after which the platform experienced a complete inability to withdraw funds, and was warned by Financial News Network as a suspected act of the same manipulation gang continuing operations under a new shell after renaming to Zhongshi Research Investment.
• In October 2024, the Changping Court sentenced an unlicensed stock-picking case: Weng and 16 others illegally conducted stock recommendation businesses without obtaining securities investment consulting qualifications and collected membership fees under the names of multiple companies from 2017 to 2023, with illegal business turnover reaching over 60 million RMB, among which Weng's illegal gains exceeded 10.54 million RMB; the 16 defendants were convicted of illegal business operations, receiving prison sentences ranging from 5 years and 9 months to 8 months. (Source: [https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s67171ccfe4b01a5d71ca482c.html](https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s67171ccfe4b01a5d71ca482c.html))
• Investor Mr. Wang transferred 150,000 RMB to internet celebrity Wang's core group and then invested over 3 million RMB in stock trading, ultimately losing nearly 1 million RMB; police found that victims reached 400 to 500 people with involved funds exceeding 10 million RMB; in October 2025, the People's Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing sentenced Wang to two years and six months in prison for illegal business operations, and fined him 15 million RMB. (Source: [https://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2026-03/24/content_4wLlXRsWZP.html](https://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2026-03/24/content_4wLlXRsWZP.html))

Official Stance

• On June 12, 2026, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau issued a risk warning requiring investors to be alert to activities named intelligent stock selection but actually being illegal stock recommendations, explicitly pointing out that AI quantitative stock selection, fake stock trading software, and live-streaming room stock recommendations constitute illegal financial activities. Source URL: [https://www.cnfin.com/gs-lb/detail/20260612/4425660_1.html](https://www.cnfin.com/gs-lb/detail/20260612/4425660_1.html)
• On April 30, 2026, Rosefinch Fund Management Co., Ltd. forwarded a risk warning announcement reminding investors to be vigilant against illegal financial activities conducted under the names of fake stock trading software and AI stock trading. Source URL: [https://www.rosefinchfund.com/contents/2026/4/30-bb65990a56ba4978bde86e4703b39cc1.html](https://www.rosefinchfund.com/contents/2026/4/30-bb65990a56ba4978bde86e4703b39cc1.html)
• On August 3, 2026, the official WeChat public account of the Economic Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security forwarded a Securities Times article targeting traps behind securities and futures crime live-streaming stock recommendations, warning investors to watch out for traps behind live-streaming room stock recommendations. Source URL: [https://stock.jrj.com.cn/2026/08/03092357989845.shtml](https://stock.jrj.com.cn/2026/08/03092357989845.shtml)

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ All investment apps should be verified through the CSRC official website to check whether they hold a securities investment consulting business license by entering the platform name and full operating entity name. If corresponding records cannot be found in the licensed institution list, it can be judged as an illegal stock-picking platform.
• ✅ Before depositing, verify whether the collection account is a corporate account of a licensed broker or fund company. If the recipient is a personal account or an unrelated company account, refuse transfer operations entirely and retain screenshots to report to the anti-fraud center.
• ✅ Maintain prudence toward any investment project claiming monthly returns exceeding 10% or daily returns exceeding 1%, and use the Rule of 72 to calculate the doubling cycle. Any claim of annualized returns exceeding 1,000% fails common sense in financial markets, and one should exit promptly and block related communities.
• ✅ Upon encountering fund locking or withdrawal reviews, immediately stop adding any funds, save app position screenshots, chat records with customer service, bank transfer receipts, and community entrances, report the case to the economic crime investigation department of local public security organs, and simultaneously submit materials to the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau through the 12318 reporting center.