Fake AI Training Qualifications and Counterfeit Certificate Agency Scam: Exploiting Fabricated Issuing Bodies and Special Governance Regulatory Lapses to Prey on Anxious Job Seekers

Who Gets Targeted

Predominantly career changers aged 25 to 40, fresh graduates, and blue-collar workers in lower-tier markets. They generally lack basic discriminatory awareness regarding the national vocational qualification catalog and skill level recognition systems. Upon seeing trendy titles such as 'AI Trainer' or 'AIGC Engineer,' they are eager to jump on board. Combined with employment anxiety and a shortcut mentality of 'guaranteed employment and passing without exams,' they easily fall for exaggerated marketing pitches in short videos claiming a daily income of over 10,000 yuan with zero basic requirements. They lower their guard against high fees ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan, and even borrow money to register, only to discover afterward that the certificates have no record in official query systems and that the so-called affiliation subsidies are pure pie in the sky.

骗局怎么运作

• Agencies run traffic-driving scripts on platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Baidu with hooks such as 'Urgent hiring for AI trainers, monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, get certified upon employment,' paired with AI workstation and certificate close-up footage, guiding job seekers into private WeChat or WeChat Work domains to manufacture a sense of herd mentality and urgency, claiming that missing this batch means waiting another year.
• Customer service representatives share fabricated official red-header document screenshots, past trainees' graduation photos with certificates, and fake filing numbers during private chats, claiming that the issuing authority is registered and recognized by the MHRSS, allowing exam exemption or guaranteed passes, while promising enterprise affiliation subsidies of thousands of yuan per month. Quotes range from 2,800 to 12,200 yuan, with pitches repeatedly emphasizing that payment made on the same day secures early-bird spots.
• After payment, they distribute so-called question banks and practice accounts, organize a dispensable online assessment—with some agencies bypassing exams entirely—and mail out 'counterfeit certificates' bearing names like industry associations or international certification centers a few weeks later, which have completely nothing to do with the national vocational qualification catalog.
• When job seekers return to question the gold content of the certificate, customer service presents a self-built query website or a forged third-party verification page where entering the certificate number displays a pass, creating a fake illusion of verifiability. Simultaneously, they use excuses such as a national policy transitional period or enterprises not yet being onboarded to stall, inducing victims to pay additional fees to upgrade to so-called advanced or international version certificates.
• When victims request refunds or demand official filing credentials, agencies refuse on the grounds that classes have started and services have been delivered, or directly delete WeChat accounts and change business licenses to flee. A small number of reported entities move to another city, rename themselves, and reopen, continuing to use the exact same scripts and counterfeit certificates to harvest a new batch of job seekers.
• Some agency chains even penetrate corporate recruitment processes, jointly publishing interview notices with fake companies and requiring job seekers to hold their counterfeit certificates in order to be hired, forming a closed-loop scam of collecting fees for certificates, collecting fees for employment, and ultimately providing no jobs, compounding the victims' psychological and financial dual losses.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claiming to be national vocational qualifications yet requiring no uniform exams or practical assessments, with issuing authority names showing no records in the MHRSS vocational skill grade evaluation organization public query system.
• 🚩 Certificate covers and font sizes deliberately imitate national ministries' red-header styles, while the signatures belong to non-registered organizations such as certain industry alliances or international certification centers, and query website domains are self-built or unregistered.
• 🚩 Pricing is far higher than regular vocational skill level assessment fees, requiring personal transfers or private collections while refusing to issue formal invoices and training contracts, with contract clauses avoiding refunds.
• 🚩 Customer service pitches pile up absolute promises like exam exemption, guaranteed passes, guaranteed employment, and affiliation subsidies, but are unable to present MHRSS filing numbers or original authorization documents, providing only screenshots and verbal assurances.
• 🚩 Recruitment and training converge: requiring payment for certificates before employment, while enterprises are actually shell companies controlled by the same person, sharing office space with the training location without any real business operations.
• 🚩 Agencies lack fixed telephone numbers or public office addresses, register entities frequently, and social media accounts have short registration times centered around displaying screenshots of certificates and salaries.

真实案例

• Between 2025 and 2026, job seekers in multiple regions encountered agencies claiming to handle 'Advanced AI Trainer Certificates' via short video advertisements. After paying 3,000 to 12,200 yuan, they received counterfeit certificates that could not be queried on the MHRSS Skills Talent Evaluation Work Network, immediately encountering difficulties in obtaining refunds. Related Xinhua Net tracking reports showed that relevant intermediaries were placed under criminal investigation and platforms cleaned up violating merchants.
• In June 2026, relevant authorities in Shijingshan District, Beijing, issued a warning: training agencies claimed they could issue vocational skill grade certificates such as 'AI Data Annotator' without exams and recommended employment. Multiple victims paid high agency fees only to find that the certificates could be found on self-built websites but lacked MHRSS filing records, and that the so-called affiliation subsidies did not exist. The case was ultimately characterized as an 'exam-free, pass-and-earn-easy-money scam.'
• In July 2026, CCTV and multiple media outlets reported the first AI text-spinning fraud case, where a man used AIGC to batch-produce pseudo-original content to defraud 18,000 yuan in platform subsidies and was sentenced. The case exposed how certain fake AI training and certificate agencies used AI-generated content to impersonate student assignments and performance evidence, packaging 'project experience' for job seekers and bundling it with counterfeit certificates, forming a compound scam of fake credentials and fake projects.

Official Stance

• In July 2026, the MHRSS issued a special governance work announcement expanding on technical and skill-based 'counterfeit certificates,' emphasizing strict crackdowns on unauthorized vocational qualification exam recognitions, arbitrary fee collection, disguised training, and other violations, while publishing reporting channels. This document was reprinted and followed up by multiple authoritative media outlets including the China Economist Examination Network.
• On June 25, 2026, Xinhua Net published 'Tracking the Black and Gray Market of Vocational Skill Certificates: Relevant Departments Conduct Rectification,' reporting that human resources, public security, and market regulation departments in multiple regions launched joint law enforcement to place fake certificate agency intermediaries under criminal investigation, while platforms simultaneously cleared violating merchants.
• On June 2, 2026, Guangming Daily published ''Real Certificates' Sold Casually, 'Fake Exams' Guaranteed to Pass... Investigation into the Black and Gray Market of Certain Vocational Skill Certificates,' urging society to stay vigilant against script traps such as exam-free guaranteed passes and affiliation subsidies.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Upon receiving certificate invitations, immediately log into the MHRSS Skills Talent Evaluation Work Network or local human resources department official websites to verify whether the issuing organization is in the filing directory and whether the occupation name is in the national vocational qualification catalog. Inability to find records can be determined as a risk signal.
• ✅ Regardless of how agencies hype trends and urgency, insist on reviewing training contract and invoice elements first, confirming that the receiving account is a corporate account with service contents clearly noted, and refusing personal private transfers and verbal promises.
• ✅ Maintain vigilance against absolute promises like 'exam-free guaranteed passes' and 'affiliation subsidies,' and request examination plans and public announcement documents stamped with the official seal of human resources departments. If only screenshots or self-established query websites are shown, treat them all as untrustworthy.
• ✅ If payment has already been made and certificates are found to be officially unverified, immediately secure chat records, payment vouchers, and mailing slips, and lodge complaints and reports with local human resources and market regulation departments. In suspected fraud cases, simultaneously report to public security authorities.