AI Professional Skills Certificate Black Market Proxy Scam: Collecting Money Through Exemption-Guaranteed and Bootleg Certificates

Who Gets Targeted

The main victims are fresh graduates who urgently need AI-related certificates to boost their employment competitiveness, professionals transitioning into the AI field, and some employees of small, medium, and micro enterprises. These individuals often lack a deep understanding of the national vocational qualification certification system and are attracted by gimmicks such as 'exemption and guaranteed passing,' 'buying a certificate with money,' and 'obtaining a certificate quickly.' These tactics prey on their anxious psychology of wanting quick success, taking shortcuts, and worrying about employment, ultimately leading them to purchase bootleg fake certificates that cannot be found on official query platforms.

骗局怎么运作

• Packaging authoritative institutional endorsements: Placing a large number of advertisements on short video and social platforms, claiming cooperation with subordinate institutions of ministries such as the 'Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security' and the 'Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,' or even forging authorization documents or fabricating high-sounding project names like the 'National AI Talent Training Project.' This misleads job seekers into mistakenly believing they possess official certification qualifications, thereby lowering their guard and prompting them to proactively consult.
• Fabricating exemption-guaranteed promises: Sales personnel use aggressive scripts in direct messages or community chats to loudly promote 'obtaining certificates without exams,' 'issuing certificates directly without studying,' and 'rapidly getting certificates in a month,' claiming that only ID documents and photos need to be provided. This hits the pain points of victims who are eager to get certificates for employment, and then uses hunger marketing tactics such as 'limited spots' and 'imminent exam suspension' to create a sense of urgency.
• Forging high-value certificates and query systems: Producing fake certificates with extremely high simulation, replicating the layout, seals, and anti-counterfeiting marks of genuine official certificates. To cope with victims' verification needs, scammers also build bootleg 'certificate query websites' or mini-programs mimicking the national vocational qualification certificate online query system, allowing victims to find their certificates in the fake system and believe it is real.
• Layered additional fee schemes: After initially collecting thousands of yuan in proxy fees, they continuously demand that victims make additional transfers under names such as 'expedited fees,' 'filing fees,' and 'certificate material fees.' If victims grow suspicious and request a refund, they refuse under the pretext that 'it has already been submitted to the system and locked' or 'the quota is occupied,' or even directly block and lose contact to complete the final harvest.
• Fabricating the temptation of affiliation and part-time monetization: To increase the average customer transaction value, sales personnel also weave monetization promises such as 'after getting the certificate, you can affiliate with large enterprises' and 'providing AI data annotation part-time order-taking channels,' inducing victims to purchase high-priced packages including 'certificate + part-time job.' In reality, the part-time tasks do not exist at all or the commissions cannot be cashed out.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claiming cooperation with vague national-level projects, but unable to provide official red-headed documents or official website verification links.
• 🚩 Promising 'exemption,' 'no study required,' and '100% guaranteed pass,' which violates the basic common sense that national vocational skill level recognition must go through regular training and assessment.
• 🚩 Requiring fees to be transferred to personal accounts or non-corporate accounts, refusing to sign regular training or proxy service contracts, and only issuing receipts or even no vouchers at all.
• 🚩 After the certificate is issued, it can only be queried on specific bootleg websites or designated URLs, and cannot be verified online through the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security's Skills Talent Evaluation Work Network (OSTA) or the official vocational qualification work networks of various provinces and cities.
• 🚩 Promoting 'passive income through certificate affiliation' and 'guaranteed assigned part-time order-taking,' using high returns to lure victims, yet unable to show real part-time platform cooperation agreements or detailed past successful cases.

真实案例

• In June 2026, according to Xinhua News, some black and gray industries dealing in vocational skills certificates were investigated and dealt with. A training agency, lacking training qualifications, used the guise of emerging professions like 'AI trainer' to charge victims exorbitant fees while promising exam-free certificate acquisition. Investigations by regulatory authorities revealed that most of the certificates issued were bootleg certificates that could not be queried on the official OSTA website, with multiple victims defrauded of amounts ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.
• In June 2026, Guangming Daily exposed the vocational skills certificate black and gray industry. A certificate proxy intermediary claimed online that 'real certificates can be sold at will, fake exams are guaranteed to pass,' attracting numerous job seekers. A career-transitioning job seeker gullibly trusted their promise, paid 8,000 yuan in proxy fees to obtain a so-called 'Senior AI Algorithm Engineer' certificate, and was later exposed during an actual job interview when the enterprise discovered the certificate was forged, resulting in both a missed job opportunity and direct financial loss.
• In early June 2025, the Justice Bureau of a district in Beijing released a warning case about the 'exemption-to-get-certificate and lay-back-and-earn scam.' An education and training company used short video traffic generation to claim it could exempt individuals from exams to obtain AI-related vocational qualification certificates and recommend high-paying jobs. After a college student paid 6,000 yuan, not only did they fail to obtain a legal certificate, but the employment recommendation promised by the other party also vanished. Investigations found that their office address was a virtual affiliation, making it difficult for victims to protect their rights and obtain refunds.
• In September 2026, in a case cracked down by the Chaoyang Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau involving a fire protection engineer 'guaranteed-pass class' scam syndicate, Ms. Zhang gullibly trusted the guaranteed-pass advertisement and transferred 18,000 yuan to register, ultimately getting only a little over 1,000 yuan back in refunds. The syndicate involved more than 40 victims nationwide, and 6 suspects were subjected to criminal coercive measures. (Source: [https://i.ifeng.com/c/8vrVynIw8oZ](https://i.ifeng.com/c/8vrVynIw8oZ))
• In September 2026, in a case prosecuted by the People's Procuratorate of Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province regarding an education consulting company's exemption-certificate scam, the company claimed that purchasing courses granted exam exemption quotas and that certificates could be affiliated for passive income, defrauding hundreds of trainees nationwide out of a total of over 10.41 million yuan for health management specialist and other certificate fees within just 7 months. (Source: [https://gxbys.ncss.cn/ncss/jyfxts/yjts/202609/20260904/2293939272.html](https://gxbys.ncss.cn/ncss/jyfxts/yjts/202609/20260904/2293939272.html))

Official Stance

• In June 2025, Beijing released a preventive reminder advising the public to watch out for 'exemption-to-get-certificate' and 'passive income' scams, and to be vigilant against various false promotions of obtaining certificates without taking exams.
• In June 2026, Xinhua News published a follow-up report pointing out that regulatory authorities had filed cases for investigation against illegal fake-certificate proxy intermediaries, and requested internet platforms to clean up illegal merchants and sever the fake-certificate industrial chain.
• In July 2026, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued an announcement on expanding the special governance work against technical and skill-based 'bootleg certificates,' strictly cracking down on behaviors such as the unauthorized use of the national emblem and the forgery of national vocational qualification catalogs, and reminding the public to verify certificates through official channels.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify institutional qualifications: Before registering, check through official channels whether the organizing institution has vocational skill level recognition qualifications and whether it is on the list of social training evaluation organizations filed with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Do not blindly trust verbal or online promotions.
• ✅ Reject exemption promises: Block any institution that claims 'exemption to get certificate' or 'study-free guaranteed pass.' National regular vocational qualification certificates or vocational skills level certificates all require strict study and examination processes.
• ✅ Verify authenticity on official websites: After obtaining a certificate, log in immediately to the 'Skills Talent Evaluation Certificate National Online Query' system (OSTA) or the official website designated by the human resources and social security departments of various provinces for verification. Do not use bootleg query links provided by the institution.
• ✅ Beware of extra fees and part-time traps: Regular institutions have transparent, public fee structures and issue regular invoices. Encountering 'expedited fees,' 'filing fees,' or promises of 'certificate affiliation for passive income' should be resolutely rejected, and relevant chat logs and transfer vouchers should be kept while reporting to public security organs in a timely manner.