Xiao Zhou Intelligent AI Dropshipping: Backend Shutdown After High Annual Fee Collection

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are primarily SMB cross-border e-commerce sellers lacking technical backgrounds, concentrated in trade hubs like Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Yiwu, with many being sole proprietors. Eager to replace manual product selection and listing with AI, they lack the ability to vet 'annual subscription' software. Driven by the desire for a 'worry-free, passive income' lifestyle, they fall for high-profit screenshots and 'limited-time offers' shown by sales reps, often paying over 10,000 yuan in annual fees after a trial period, only realizing they were scammed when the app becomes inaccessible.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Run ads on the App Store and cross-border e-commerce communities for 'AI product selection + automatic dropshipping,' claiming to scrape global hot-selling data, automatically generate listings, and upload them to platforms like Amazon and Shopee with one click. The landing pages display fake user revenue curves and 'diamond-tier' customer testimonials to project high reliability.
• Step 2: Guide sellers to download the 'Xiao Zhou Intelligent' app. After registration, provide a 1-3 day free trial, during which the backend displays animations of 'simulated hits' and 'successful dropshipping'—actually pre-set scripts—to lure sellers to the payment page, using countdown buttons like '5,000 yuan off if ordered today' to create urgency.
• Step 3: Sales consultants follow up via WeChat one-on-one, sending forged 'internal product selection reports' and 'student refund slips,' claiming a 30,000 yuan annual fee can be paid in 12 installments, and promising 'break-even within a month.' Some sellers, bombarded by repeated scripts, sign electronic contracts and pay in full without third-party verification.
• Step 4: After receiving the annual fee, the backend remains accessible for the first 2-3 weeks, but product data updates stall and dropshipping interface errors occur frequently. When sellers complain, customer service uses excuses like 'system upgrades' or 'overseas server latency' to delay, while recommending an upgrade to 'Gold Member' to unlock more features, creating opportunities for secondary exploitation.
• Step 5: After about two months, the app becomes inaccessible, the official website is taken down, and customer service goes silent. Scammers deregister the company or transfer domains, and relaunch similar software under new names on other platforms. During this time, scammers use the store authorization information retained from sellers to continue stealing their product images, infringing on copyrights.
• Step 6: Only after victims aggregate do they realize that the so-called 'AI product selection' was actually a crawler scraping public images, and 'automatic dropshipping' was merely simulated clicking, never actually connecting to platform APIs. Through this model, the scammers collected a total of 6 million yuan in annual fees from multiple sellers before August 2024, and the app continued to collect payments until it was shut down.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Red Flag 1: The annual fee is abnormally high (starting at 30,000 yuan) and requires a one-time payment, whereas legitimate SaaS providers typically offer monthly or annual plans with clear contracts and refund policies.
• 🚩 Red Flag 2: Marketing claims 'AI full-service management' and '100,000 yuan monthly income' but lacks real backend screenshots, providing only photoshopped revenue curves and vague chat logs.
• 🚩 Red Flag 3: The app has a rating below 3 stars in the app store and recent negative reviews regarding 'inability to log in' or 'unreachable customer service,' yet the operator continues to use fake reviews to maintain its rating.
• 🚩 Red Flag 4: Requires sellers to authorize store API and product image access, but the contract fails to specify data usage and withdrawal mechanisms, posing a risk of theft.
• 🚩 Red Flag 5: Payment accounts are personal accounts or corporate accounts of shell companies that do not match the app name, and the provider refuses to issue VAT invoices.
• 🚩 Red Flag 6: Backend data during the free trial is clearly fake (e.g., order timestamps inconsistent with Beijing time), and no raw order screenshots can be exported.

真实案例

• The company used AI product selection as a selling point but actually used crawlers to scrape unauthorized images. Multiple sellers found their backends shut down after paying annual fees, with some receiving no response to complaints on the same day. The Cyberspace Administration ordered them to rectify and refund fees, but the refund process was never disclosed.
• A seller named Jia claimed the other party sent a PDF 'AI product selection report,' but all product links in the report returned 404 errors. It was later discovered that the data was pieced together from screenshots of other platforms. Jia reported the case to the local police, but since the contract entity was a 'Shanghai Information Technology Co., Ltd.' that had already been deregistered, the case entered a difficult investigation phase.
• A team leader revealed that the salesperson had promised a '30-day no-questions-asked refund,' but the contract was full of loopholes, with the refund clause stating only 'according to platform rules,' which provided no executable path. Team members collectively submitted evidence to the Shanghai market regulation authorities.

Official Stance

• In August 2024, the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration issued a notice regarding the illegal operation of the 'Xiao Zhou Intelligent' app, pointing out its suspected copyright infringement, interviewing the company's person in charge, and demanding immediate rectification and user refunds.
• In February 2025, the National Anti-Fraud Center issued a warning regarding cross-border e-commerce fraud, advising sellers to be wary of 'AI product selection + automatic dropshipping' tools that run away after collecting high annual fees, and recommending verifying the authenticity of tools through official app stores and legitimate platforms.
• In November 2025, the China Consumers Association warned that some cross-border SaaS software charges high subscription fees in the name of 'AI empowerment' without actual service capabilities. Consumers are advised to retain contracts, payment vouchers, chat records, and other evidence, and to verify the company's business registration status.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Step 1: Before signing, visit gsxt.gov.cn to pull the company's business registration records. Focus on the full company name, registered address, business anomaly records, and whether it has been listed as a seriously illegal or dishonest entity. Refuse to trade with sellers that 'only provide an app but have no business entity.'
• ✅ Step 2: Require the other party to provide a real platform API integration agreement (such as Amazon SP-API authorization files) and contact official platform customer support to confirm if the tool is on the list of certified service providers.
• ✅ Step 3: Use only monthly payment methods or pay-per-success models. Strictly prohibit paying more than 3 months of fees at once, and ensure the contract explicitly includes a 'full refund if services are not provided' clause.
• ✅ Step 4: Regularly export all raw data from the backend (including API logs, order flows, and product selection report sources), take screenshots, and save timestamps as evidence for potential legal action.
• ✅ Step 5: Once you notice abnormal app functionality or lose contact with customer service, stop payments immediately, report the app to the app store, submit written complaints to local police and market regulation authorities, and freeze payment channels (contact your bank to request a transaction reversal).