V7 Invitation Code Reselling Scam — Fake Queue and Annual Membership Fees

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are primarily designers, e-commerce practitioners, self-media operators, and students who urgently need Midjourney V7 for content creation. They generally have a strong reliance on AI tools but limited understanding of official channels and legitimate purchasing processes, making them susceptible to pitches like 'low price', 'annual subscription bundle', and 'internal channels'. Such individuals often experience strong FOMC (fear of missing out) and worry about missing the efficiency advantages brought by the new version, leading them to impulsively pay upon seeing so-called 'beta invitation codes' and neglect verifying the authenticity of the channel.

骗局怎么运作

• Posting sales offers for 'Midjourney V7 beta invitation codes' on social platforms such as WeChat groups, QQ groups, Xiaohongshu, and Xianyu, claiming to have 'internal channels' or 'official partnership quotas' at prices far below official subscription rates. Pitches include 'Limited official beta slots, first come, first served' and 'Internal accounts, stable and drop-proof'.
• Guiding victims to add personal WeChat or QQ, then charging small fees under the names of 'queue fees' or 'reservation fees', typically ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan. Scammers send forged queue screenshots or chat histories to create the illusion of 'tight quotas'.
• After the victim pays the queue fee, the scammer induces them to pay a higher annual fee—ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan—under the pretext that 'an annual membership must be activated to use full features'. Pitches include 'Beta accounts need to be bound to an annual fee to unlock the V7 model' and 'Annual members enjoy lifetime free updates'.
• After receiving payment, scammers stall using excuses like 'Account is being provisioned', 'System delay', or 'Awaiting official review', and may even send forged account credentials. By the time the victim finds they cannot log in or notices feature limitations, the scammer has already lost contact or blocked them.
• Some syndicates also pull victims into 'member groups', where accomplices post fake usage screenshots and positive reviews to further deceive others into trusting them and paying more fees. Some even perpetrate secondary scams by claiming the 'account has been banned and a penalty unban fee is required'.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claims to have official Midjourney beta slots or internal channels, whereas the official company has never authorized any third-party agents to sell invitation codes
• 🚩 Demands payment for 'queue fees' or 'reservation fees' that are unrelated to the official subscription process
• 🚩 Prices are significantly lower than official pricing, such as 'annual fees costing only one-third of the official price'
• 🚩 Only supports personal payment methods like WeChat Pay and Alipay, refusing corporate accounts or official invoices
• 🚩 Rushes payment to create a sense of urgency that 'slots are selling out soon', forbidding victims from verifying information

真实案例

• In April 2026, a university design major student A saw an advertisement for 'Midjourney V7 beta invitation codes' on Xianyu, was induced to pay a 500 yuan 'queue fee' and a 1200 yuan 'annual fee', and after payment the seller went out of contact, leaving student A unable to log into any account with a total loss of 1700 yuan.
• In May 2026, e-commerce operator B purchased a so-called 'V7 internal annual membership' in a WeChat group, paid 2000 yuan, but found the received account credentials unusable. Upon contacting the seller, B discovered they had been kicked out of the chat group and blocked.
• In June 2026, multiple social platforms saw 'V7 invitation code carpooling/sharing' scams. Victim C paid a 300 yuan group entry fee, but the so-called 'shared account' inside the group was never delivered. The group admin refused a refund under the pretext that 'the account was reclaimed by officials' and subsequently disbanded the chat group.
• In July 2026, a user in a paid Knowledge Planet (Zhihuishu) community purchased a 'V7 beta top-up service' for 1500 yuan, only to receive a standard version account unable to use V7 features. After complaints, the community operator denied responsibility, stating that 'the top-up service was provided by a third party'.
• In March 2025, after the domestic AI agent Manus went viral, its invitation codes were scalped by scalpers to tens of thousands or even 100,000 yuan. Second-hand platforms saw a large volume of high-priced code listings, and bad actors exploited the 'hard-to-get-a-code' mentality to post fake code sales, where buyers paying money were easily blocked or received invalid codes. Manus officially clarified that no paid acquisition channels had been opened, and Jiefang Daily published an article on March 7, 2025 warning people to watch out for fraud involving invitation codes (Source: [https://www.jfdaily.com/wx/detail.do?id=871726](https://www.jfdaily.com/wx/detail.do?id=871726)).
• In February 2025, after DeepSeek went viral, a large number of counterfeit websites emerged: a netizen searching for DeepSeek accidentally stumbled upon a scam website differing by only a single character in its name and was charged a 59 yuan membership fee. Wuhan Morning Post's Jiupai News reported on February 24, 2025 that lawyers pointed out that counterfeit behavior may involve trademark infringement (Source: [https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250224A06G4W00](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250224A06G4W00)).

Official Stance

• In March 2026, Midjourney officially released an announcement stating clearly that it has never authorized any third party to sell beta invitation codes or annual memberships, reminding users to subscribe only through the official website.
• In May 2026, a local cyberspace administration released a risk warning pointing out that 'AI tool beta invitation codes' have become a high-incidence scenario for new types of cyber fraud, reminding the public to beware of low-priced invitation code traps.
• In July 2026, the China Consumers Association released a consumption warning calling out 'AI tool invitation code top-ups and shared carpooling', noting high financial risks and advising users to purchase through official channels.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Subscribe to accounts only through the official Midjourney website and do not easily trust 'beta invitation codes' or 'annual memberships' from any third-party channels
• ✅ Verify the identity of the payee before making payments and refuse to transfer money to personal WeChat or Alipay accounts for virtual services
• ✅ Maintain high vigilance toward 'invitation codes' or 'shared accounts' priced significantly below official pricing
• ✅ Confirm the authenticity of so-called 'beta events' through official community or customer service channels before making decisions
• ✅ Save chat records and transfer receipts, report to the police immediately upon discovering fraud, and contact the payment platform to freeze funds