Police nab 49 linked to pyramid sales scam that swindled 8,500 local residents
Print Edition
FORTY-NINE people have been detained on suspicion of running a pyramid sales scheme that cheated 8,500 Shanghai residents out of 34 million yuan (US$5.4 million), police in Fengxian District said yesterday.
The scheme was hatched in March, and the suspects are alleged to have lured their victims with the offer of big returns on small investments in a fictional bank.
Would-be “investors” were required to pay 4,000 yuan up front and urged to recruit new members, for which they would be rewarded, police said.
They were told they could earn up to 3 million yuan in two years depending on the number of people they recruited, they said.
As with all such schemes, very few of the investors — the majority of whom were aged between 50 and 80 — ever saw a penny.
The 49 people detained are all members of an organization known as China Mingmingshang, which was established in 2010 and has a record of operating pyramid schemes, police said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
