Frame AI Virtual Real Estate: Metaverse AI Land Sales Accused of Fraud Due to Secondary Market Liquidity Collapse

Who Gets Targeted

The primary victims are middle-class investors aged 30 to 55 with certain savings and investment experience, spanning over a dozen provinces and municipalities including Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shanghai, and Hubei. They have limited understanding of blockchain, the metaverse, and AI pricing mechanisms, making them susceptible to pitches about AI algorithmic pricing and scarce value appreciation. They gullibly believe that virtual land can retain and increase in value like physical real estate, while succumbing to herd mentality and the fear of missing out. Within just over three months of launch, the platform virally recruited tens of thousands of members spanning 32 tiers, involving hundreds of millions of yuan. After the platform disabled withdrawals, investors lost their life savings (CNR News reporting guidelines, July 14, 2025).

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Project Packaging. Fraud rings set up virtual metaverse platforms under names such as Frame AI, claiming that their land prices are determined by AI algorithms for scarcity with huge appreciation potential, and showcase exquisite 3D virtual scenes and future blueprints.
• Step 2: Manufacturing Hype. Promotional content is published via social media, live-streaming platforms, and WeChat groups, claiming early investors have already achieved multi-fold returns, while plants are deployed in groups to post earnings screenshots, creating an illusion of a buying frenzy.
• Step 3: Initial Sales. Virtual land is sold to early investors at prices far below the claimed future value, with promises of subsequent secondary trading within the platform or participation in GameFi dividend sharing, inducing investors to inject funds.
• Step 4: Restricting Exits. When investors attempt to resell the land, the platform restricts transactions under pretexts such as insufficient liquidity, market adjustments, or system upgrades, or demands continuous top-ups to unlock the selling function, leaving funds trapped and unwithdrawable.
• Step 5: Disappearance and Flight. When new investor growth stagnates and the capital pool becomes unsustainable, the platform shuts down its website and social media accounts, customer service goes dark, and investors lose everything.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claims that AI algorithms can precisely predict the appreciation of virtual land, yet algorithms models or data sources are never disclosed.
• 🚩 Promises of high returns or guaranteed income, particularly pitches involving short-term doubling or effortless passive earnings.
• 🚩 Obvious restrictions on secondary trading, such as minimum holding periods, unlock fees, or transaction queues.
• 🚩 The platform lacks clear corporate registration information, operating entities, or compliance filings.
• 🚩 Promotional materials heavily rely on vague expressions such as future blueprints, celebrity endorsements, and authorized institutional partnerships that cannot be verified.

真实案例

• On March 18, 2026, Sohu News reported that the Pingshan Police Station of the Panyu Branch of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau cracked an investment fraud case utilizing the metaverse gimmick: Ms. Huang, a victim, invested in so-called virtual real estate and virtual mining rig projects where account funds could not be withdrawn, incurring cumulative losses as high as 1.14 million yuan, with police successfully recovering over one million yuan of defrauded funds in full. (Source: [https://www.sohu.com/a/998176967_100116740](https://www.sohu.com/a/998176967_100116740))
• In July 2025, CNR News reported and exposed a metaverse farm scam, revealing a Ponzi scheme model combining virtual land with GameFi dividends, where multiple investors were unable to recover funds due to platform closures.
• In 2022, Forward Business Intelligence reported the bursting of the metaverse property speculation bubble: in November 2021, a piece of digital land in the virtual world platform Decentraland sold for 15.52 million yuan, while the Sandbox platform auctioned land at an astronomical 32 million yuan; on the domestic metaverse app HUAagroup, an originally 88 yuan semi-seaview villa skyrocketed 1,000 times within days with asking prices exceeding 100,000 yuan, only to crash when new players stopped buying in. (Source: [https://t.qianzhan.com/caijing/detail/220210-bc1df01b.html](https://t.qianzhan.com/caijing/detail/220210-bc1df01b.html))

Official Stance

• CNR News, July 14, 2025, published the article Series Report on Cloud Farming: Exposing the Metaverse Farm Scam (Source: [https://www.cnr.cn/newscenter/dj/20250714/t20250714_527260920.shtml](https://www.cnr.cn/newscenter/dj/20250714/t20250714_527260920.shtml))
• National Financial Regulatory Administration, February 18, 2022, issued the Risk Warning on Preventing Illegal Fundraising in the Name of the Metaverse (Source: [https://www.nfra.gov.cn/cn/view/pages/ItemDetail.html?docId=1038723&itemId=915&generaltype=0](https://www.nfra.gov.cn/cn/view/pages/ItemDetail.html?docId=1038723&itemId=915&generaltype=0))

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify the platform operating entity and corporate background to check for business registration information and regulatory filings.
• ✅ Maintain vigilance against pitches involving AI pricing, high returns, and scarcity, and do not blindly trust earnings screenshots on social media and live streams.
• ✅ Do not invest large amounts of capital into virtual assets with unguaranteed liquidity, especially projects with restricted secondary trading.
• ✅ If the platform is found to restrict withdrawals or demand additional deposits to unlock transactions, immediately cease investments, preserve evidence, and report to the police.