Metaverse AI Virtual Land Fundraising Scam: 80,000 RMB-per-Sqm Digital Plots and Vanishing Bagholders

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are predominantly urban wage earners, individual merchants, and retired investors aged 25 to 50 who have some savings but lack a foundational understanding of blockchain and financial regulation. Driven by anxiety over missing out on the previous Bitcoin and real estate booms, they are hooked by the pitch that 'the metaverse is the next-generation internet land; miss it now and lose out forever,' which exploits their loss aversion and herd mentality. Having a superficial understanding of terms like AI generation and on-chain rights confirmation while being too proud to admit their ignorance, they are easily swayed by shills in group chats showing off profit screenshots to leverage their investments or even borrow money to buy the dip. Only when the platform closes withdrawals do they realize their principal and purported appreciation gains have both plummeted to zero.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Hype and Packaging. The syndicate registers a shell technology company, builds a Decentraland-style metaverse display page, and claims to use AI algorithms to automatically plan virtual city plots. They invite lecturers to live-streaming rooms to explain the scarcity of limited blocks, creating an illusion of scarcity using pitches such as 'staking a claim on raw land in the digital age.'
• Step 2: Hunger Marketing. Database records lacking genuine on-chain rights confirmation are packaged as NFT plots and released in batches for time-limited flash sales. Prices range from several thousand RMB to 80,000 RMB per square meter, emphasizing that prices only go up and that the platform guarantees buybacks, inducing victims to use bank accounts or cryptocurrencies to fund their purchases.
• Step 3: Market Manipulation and Pump. The platform builds its own internal trading hall, using bot accounts to buy and sell among themselves to manufacture the illusion of rising K-line charts. Early small-scale players are allowed to smoothly withdraw profits to build word-of-mouth credibility, after which multi-level marketing (MLM) style rules are introduced—such as requiring top-ups to enjoy higher plot tier dividends—to encourage reinvestment and recruitment.
• Step 4: Liquidity Collapse. When new capital inflows slow down, the platform freezes pending orders under pretexts such as system upgrades, integration with international public chains, or adjustments to AI valuation models. Old plots cannot be traded, buyback promises become void, and the plots in victims' hands turn into unsellable dead assets.
• Step 5: Golden Cicada Shedding its Shell. The operators shut down the app or migrate to a new alter-ego platform, claiming that original assets can be mapped at a proportional rate onto a new chain to continue operations, while demanding additional mapping fees and unfreezing fees. After carrying out this secondary fleece, they completely drop out of contact, with the funds having long been transferred via peer-to-peer mixing platforms and cryptocurrency coin mixers.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claims that virtual land only appreciates and never depreciates, or that the platform guarantees buybacks or principal and returns—no legitimate investment ever offers such promises.
• 🚩 Plot ownership confirmation cannot be independently queried on a public blockchain explorer, and certificates can only be viewed within the platform's proprietary app.
• 🚩 Trading depth relies entirely on internal platform matching without a third-party free market, leaving orders unfilled for extended periods.
• 🚩 Employment of typical MLM-style reward structures featuring multi-tier recruitment bonuses, team dividends, and tier-accelerated returns.
• 🚩 Short registration duration of the operating company, extremely low paid-in capital, virtual office registration addresses, and executive information that has been AI-sanitized and cannot be independently verified.
• 🚩 Frequent suspension of withdrawals or demands for additional fees under the guise of system upgrades, chain migrations, or compliance rectifications.

真实案例

• In July 2024, Shenzhen police cracked down on a metaverse virtual land speculation case where the platform hyped virtual plots up to 80,000 RMB per square meter, selling them under the guise of limited scarcity with promises of appreciation. The operation was ultimately classified as suspected illegal fundraising and fraud, leaving numerous investors wiped out. This case was cited by multiple media outlets during Anti-Illegal Fundraising Publicity Month.
• In March 2025, Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing Financial Regulatory Bureau pointed out in a 3.15 special report that bad actors committed fraud by hyping metaverse investments and forging cryptocurrency investment schemes. Several middle-aged and elderly victims had their retirement savings drained through so-called digital real estate projects, and regulatory authorities listed this as a typical new scam of the digital age.
• In June 2026, the Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau issued a risk warning regarding illegal financial activities in the science and technology sector, explicitly naming bad actors who sell virtual asset shares under the banner of AI computing power investments and the metaverse. A group of victims who invested funds in a so-called metaverse real estate ecosystem project found themselves unable to withdraw funds, and case leads were handed over to law enforcement.
• In November 2025, media disclosures revealed that a syndicate utilized AI to generate fake metaverse sandboxes and unmanned live-streaming sales data, claiming zero cost and high returns to lure investors into buying digital real estate franchise agency rights. Multiple regions reported concentrated cases involving sums totaling millions of RMB.

Official Stance

• On March 15, 2025, the Beijing Financial Regulatory Bureau issued a warning via Xinhua News Agency, calling out new digital scams such as AI face-swapping to impersonate friends and family, metaverse investment hype, and forged cryptocurrency investments, urging the public to verify the qualifications of investment entities.
• On March 16, 2025, China Police Online issued a warning pointing out that criminals exploit blockchain and metaverse concepts to target elderly individuals lacking financial knowledge with virtual asset scams, calling on the public to safeguard their retirement savings.
• On June 25, 2026, the Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau issued a risk warning regarding illegal financial activities in the science and technology sector, explicitly warning against illegal fundraising activities operating under the guise of AI computing power and the metaverse.
• In April 2026, relevant releases and media interpretations by the Ministry of State Security highlighted financial security risks under the metaverse and AI concept boom, reminding the public to be on guard against MLM and fundraising schemes packaged in new technological terminology.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Before investing, verify the company entity, paid-in capital, and business exception records on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology filing system; abandon the investment immediately if no verifiable record is found. Simultaneously verify whether the website domain filing entity matches the company; if the filing is under an individual's name or belongs to a shell company established just a month prior, walk away immediately.
• ✅ Demand that project organizers provide on-chain rights confirmation information that can be independently verified on a public blockchain explorer; certificates displayed exclusively within proprietary apps must be deemed invalid.
• ✅ Maintain zero tolerance for any promises of principal protection, buybacks, or guaranteed appreciation, and verify with the local financial regulatory bureau's official hotline whether the project is suspected of illegal fundraising.
• ✅ Never transfer funds for land purchases to personal accounts or overseas cryptocurrency addresses. Preserve all chat histories, transfer receipts, and contracts. If withdrawals become impossible, report to the police immediately and request payment channels to freeze transactions.
• ✅ Stay alert to recommendations from friends and family involving recruitment chains, and immediately distance yourself from and report platforms that feature team-based remuneration and tiered dividend models.