AI Visa Agency Scam: Forging Embassy Ties and Fleeing with Rush Fees

Who Gets Targeted

The main victims are international students with urgent overseas travel needs, overseas labor job seekers, and middle-aged or elderly people visiting relatives and friends. They often lack accurate understanding of the visa process, are attracted by overseas job advertisements promising 'low thresholds and high incomes', or face anxiety over difficult appointments and slow reviews during back-to-school seasons and holidays. Exploiting their sense of urgency and wishful thinking regarding 'internal channels', scammers falsely claim to have special relations with embassies and consulates for expedited visa issuance, inducing them to pay exorbitant rush fees or so-called 'grease money'. Because victims have already invested materials and deposits earlier, some refuse to cut losses even when noticing abnormalities, and instead make additional payments under pressure to expedite.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Publishing phishing ads. Scammers place advertisements such as 'unconditional expedited visa issuance', 'internal embassy quotas', and 'full refund if unsuccessful' on platforms like WeChat groups, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin, accompanied by forged visa issuance screenshots and 'customer review' videos, pushing them via algorithms to users who have searched for visa guides.
• Step 2: Forging AI identities and materials. Scammers use AI voice cloning technology to simulate calls from embassy and consulate staff, or generate emails and receipts bearing embassy logos, falsely claiming that applicant materials have been checked through internal channels to create an illusion of official endorsement.
• Step 3: Collecting rush fees and grease money. They demand transfers under names such as 'internal expedited channel', 'visa officer grease money', and 'security deposit', with amounts ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan, emphasizing that payments must be in cash or via private transfer rather than corporate accounts.
• Step 4: Manufacturing progress and delaying. Scammers regularly send AI-generated template messages like 'supplementary material notice' and 'background check in progress' to create an illusion that the process is moving forward, delaying time to continue collecting funds or transferring money.
• Step 5: Disappearing and running away. When applicants press for visa results, scammers stall with excuses like 'sudden policy changes' and 'system upgrades', then cancel accounts, disband group chats, block victims, and re-register new accounts to continue scamming.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claiming to have 'internal relations' or 'special channels' with embassies and consulates to directly expedite or skip lines; official visa agencies have never authorized any intermediary with such privileges.
• 🚩 Demanding private transfers, cash payments, or the use of cryptocurrencies while refusing to provide corporate accounts and official invoices.
• 🚩 Using AI voice calls, emails, or chatbots for communication and never providing physical office addresses or face-to-face communication opportunities.
• 🚩 Forging embassy and consulate logos, visa officer signatures, or official receipt documents, yet failing to verify application progress on official websites.
• 🚩 Repeatedly demanding additional charges under names such as 'rush fee', 'grease money', and 'security deposit', with amounts significantly higher than official visa fees.

真实案例

• In April 2026, Beijing Evening News Online reported multiple cases of overseas labor agency scams, in which some intermediaries falsely offered to process visas under the name of 'low-threshold overseas employment' and collected rush fees, swindling dozens of job seekers out of over one million yuan.
• In June 2026, Beijing Daily reported that a labor intermediary company sold 'guaranteed interview passes' and 'embassy expedited channels' as selling points, disappearing after collecting 20,000 to 50,000 yuan per person, involving victims across multiple regions nationwide.
• In April 2026, China's Ministry of Education's CHSI and employment platforms of multiple universities reposted risk warnings, pointing out that scammers took advantage of the back-to-school season to impersonate embassy and consulate phone calls, using AI-synthesized voices to notify students that 'visa materials are abnormal and require expedited processing', inducing money transfers.
• In July 2024, the People's Court of Chongchuan District, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, tried a major overseas labor scam case: three companies involved used the pretense of arranging overseas labor with promises of high salaries to fabricate direct overseas recruitment positions, defrauding a total of 1,152 victims across the country with an involved amount of 11.65 million yuan. The court sentenced the principal offender to over ten years in prison for the crime of fraud. (Source: [https://news.cqnews.net/1/detail/1259569501596155904/web/content_1259569501596155904.html](https://news.cqnews.net/1/detail/1259569501596155904/web/content_1259569501596155904.html))
• In June 2024, Shanghai police cracked down on two major telecommunications network scam syndicates that lured victims into paying exorbitant visa processing fees under the guise of low-threshold, high-salary overseas jobs, arresting 94 criminal suspects: job seekers paid tens of thousands of yuan in visa and service fees only to receive a tourist visa, while another syndicate had involved funds exceeding 4 million yuan. (Source: [https://rss2.bjd.com.cn/content/s667e907de4b07e497a974294.html](https://rss2.bjd.com.cn/content/s667e907de4b07e497a974294.html))

Official Stance

• In April 2026, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore issued a reminder to be wary of intermediary companies irregularly processing passports and travel documents, explicitly stating that embassies and consulates do not authorize any intermediary institutions to process or expedite applications, and applicants should make appointments through official channels.
• In April 2026, NetEase Subscriptions cited authoritative institutional information, clarifying that snapping up visa slots and expedited appointment services are untrustworthy, and reminding applicants not to blindly trust online intermediaries.
• In September 2026, public security and immigration management authorities in multiple regions jointly issued back-to-school anti-scam tips, emphasizing that embassies and consulates will not call to notify payment or request private transfers, and that AI voices impersonating officials are a new type of scam.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Visa applications must be processed exclusively through the official websites of embassies and consulates or officially partnered visa application centers, and no promotional claims of 'internal channels' or 'expedited quotas' should be trusted lightly.
• ✅ When receiving calls, emails, or text messages claiming to be from embassies or consulates, hang up and actively call back to verify using the phone numbers published on official websites, and do not click links provided by the other party.
• ✅ Refuse all requests for private transfers, cash payments, or cryptocurrencies, and retain all payment receipts and chat records.
• ✅ Submit suspicious intermediary accounts, phone numbers, and payment information to the National Anti-Fraud Center app or local public security organs to facilitate timely payment blocking and investigation.