Singaporean invited on 'business opportunity' Guangxi tour calls out pyramid scheme: 'They will just brainwash us'

When an ex-colleague offered Adrian Tan a partly sponsored trip to China's Guangxi province to learn about a "business opportunity", it seemed too good to pass up.

"Exactly what (the opportunity) is, I have no idea," the 47-year-old recounted to AsiaOne during an interview in August.

Tan, who works in marketing, agreed to join the 2018 trip as he believed he had "nothing to lose". He bore the cost of approximately $500 for round-trip flights but got free room and board as part of the arrangement.

In March 2018, he embarked to Nanning, Guangxi's capital city, on a five-day trip with that ex-colleague and another Singaporean he was not acquainted with.

Aside from brief sightseeing activities, Tan largely remembers being shuttled from place to place for "back-to-back" small-scale seminars with Singaporeans involved in the "business".

'Secretive govt-sanctioned programme'

He said he was introduced to a "secretive government-sanctioned programme" that sought to "bring back" overseas individuals with Chinese roots by offering monetary incentives for every person referred to do business in the city.

But as Tan sat through the hours-long pitches from various Singaporeans, he could not figure out the selling point, and suspected that it could be a pyramid scheme.

"There is no product," Tan told AsiaOne. "I've done business before; I know there should be at least some product. If there's no product, the product is you."

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and police said on Friday (Sept 4) that 52 Singaporeans in Guangxi have been arrested by Chinese authorities over suspected pyramid scheme activities .

Tan gave the lowdown on how this pyramid scheme in Guangxi worked in 2018: A person pays a 'membership fee' of $30,000 or $50,000 to join the group and receives three and five slots for each respective tiered pricing.

The slots allow the person to recruit people, or 'downlines'.

For every direct or indirect downline who subscribes to the scheme, the recruiter earns a portion of their 'membership fee'.

"The math was that if you paid $50,000 and completed all your slots, you could earn over $1 million," he alleged.

Despite having doubts about the programme, Tan admitted that he was "actually quite convinced" at one point.

"It's so easy to lose track of time over there. We just keep meeting different people, and they will just brainwash us," he described.

During the trip, he met various reputable people, including a nominee for Singaporean of the Year as well as a former Member of Parliament.

Tan told AsiaOne that a conversation with the former "gave me the impression that he has crossed $1 million in earnings".

To quell his doubts, the man went online to research the programme but couldn't find anything in English.

Inexplicably, he searched the internet again in Mandarin — and said he found a slew of videos and articles from various media outlets of similar pyramid schemes allegedly happening in Nanning.

In 2016, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council published an advisory on its website about the workings of a Taiwanese pyramid scheme in Nanning. It said victims underwent nearly the same experiences as Tan.

The man added that he could not, in all conscience, join the programme after learning that.

On the last day of the trip, he attended the final session where higher-level members of the scheme were present. Afraid of repercussions, he signed a "committment" to participate and paid a 328 yuan (S$60) fee.

Tan lodged a police report after returning to Singapore.

In it, he alleged that there were a total of 445 members in the group, and that a second group of Singaporeans also existed within the larger pyramid scheme.

Reflecting on his experience, he quipped: "It's a $500 (cost of flight tickets) lesson versus a $30,000 lesson."

Recruitment drive intensifies

According to Tan, recruitment for this pyramid scheme slowed during Covid-19, but efforts have recently renewed.

He believes that members involved in the scheme target individuals with extensive social networks as well as seniors.

"If you come in with a good network, your downline can be built very fast and your upline will stand to benefit," he explained to AsiaOne.

In August, AsiaOne found various social media posts warning of a "Nanning scam".

One such video was created by Singaporean property agent Freddie Lim, who alleged that he was told of an "investment" opportunity in Nanning on two separate occasions.

Speaking to AsiaOne, the 41-year-old said a friend had floated the idea to spend the June holidays in Nanning with his family when they met in May.

Lim, who did not suspect anything, seriously considered the idea and discussed it with his wife.

Then, at the start of June, he bumped into another friend who similarly struck up a conversation and mentioned Nanning.

"It was very casual. They both started from saying they went to Nanning – a very nice place to travel and cheap. Then slowly, they talked about this investment opportunity," he recalled.

Lim said he was not told much information about the investment, only that it was related to the city's growth.

Finding it odd that he had been approached twice in such a short span of time, he looked online and found posts about a pyramid scheme there.

@freddielimhdbcondosg Two different friends invited me to Nanning within a short period for an "investment opportunity." I did some research and found many discussions raising red flags. anyone else came across this? #PonziScheme #FinancialLiteracy #nanning ♬ original sound - @freddielim.realtor

Singapore's MFA and the police said on Friday that Singaporeans travelling or living overseas are subject to the laws of the countries they are in.

"Singaporeans are reminded to exercise caution when invited to take part in schemes involving the recruitment of participants or the upfront payment of substantial sums of money, whether overseas or locally."

lim.kewei@asiaone.com

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当一位前同事提出资助 Adrian Tan 前往中国广西省了解“商机”时，这似乎是一个不容错过的好机会。

“我完全不知道（这个机会）到底是什么，”这位 47 岁的男子在 8 月份接受 AsiaOne 采访时说道。

在市场部工作的谭先生同意参加2018年的旅行，因为他觉得“没什么可失去的”。他承担了大约500美元的往返机票费用，但作为安排的一部分，他获得了免费的食宿。

2018 年 3 月，他与那位前同事和另一位他不认识的新加坡人一起前往广西首府南宁，进行了为期五天的旅行。

除了短暂的观光活动外，谭先生的大部分记忆都是被接送到各个地方，参加与新加坡“企业”相关人士举行的“接连不断”的小型研讨会。

“政府秘密批准的项目”

他说，他接触到了一个“秘密的政府批准计划”，该计划旨在通过向每位被推荐到该市经商的人提供金钱奖励，来“吸引”有中国血统的海外人士回国。

但谭先生听了新加坡各路人士长达数小时的推销后，始终不明白他们的卖点是什么，怀疑这可能是个传销骗局。

“没有产品，”谭告诉AsiaOne。“我以前做过生意；我知道至少应该有一些产品。如果没有产品，那么产品就是你。”

新加坡外交部和警方周五（9月4日）表示，52名在广西的新加坡人因涉嫌参与传销活动被中国当局逮捕。

谭先生详细介绍了2018年广西的这个传销骗局是如何运作的：一个人支付30000美元或50000美元的“会员费”加入该组织，并根据相应的价格等级获得3个或5个名额。

这些插槽允许个人招募人员，即“下线”。

对于每个直接或间接加入该计划的下线，招募者都能获得其“会员费”的一部分。

他声称：“计算结果是，如果你支付 5 万美元并完成所有老虎机游戏，你就能赚到超过 100 万美元。”

尽管对该计划有所怀疑，但谭承认他一度“其实相当确信”。

“在那里很容易忘记时间。我们不断遇到不同的人，他们会给我们洗脑，”他描述道。

旅途中，他结识了多位知名人士，其中包括新加坡年度人物提名人和前国会议员。

Tan告诉AsiaOne，与这位前者的一次谈话“让我感觉他的收入已经超过100万美元”。

为了消除疑虑，该男子上网搜索了该节目，但找不到任何英文资料。

莫名其妙地，他又用普通话上网搜索——结果发现各种媒体发布了大量视频和文章，声称在南宁也发生了类似的传销骗局。

2016年，台湾陆委会在其网站上发布了一份公告，揭露了南宁市一个台湾传销骗局的运作方式。公告称，受害者的遭遇与谭先生几乎相同。

该男子补充说，得知此事后，他良心上过不去，无法参加该项目。

在行程的最后一天，他参加了最后一次会议，该计划的高层成员也在场。由于担心遭到报复，他签署了一份参与“承诺书”，并支付了328元人民币（约合60新元）的费用。

Tan返回新加坡后向警方报案。

他在信中声称，该组织共有 445 名成员，并且在更大的传销骗局中还存在第二个新加坡人团体。

回顾自己的经历，他打趣道：“这是一次价值 500 美元（机票费用）的教训，而不是一次价值 3 万美元的教训。”

招聘力度加大

据谭先生称，新冠疫情期间，该传销骗局的招募活动有所放缓，但最近又重新开始招募。

他认为，参与该计划的成员以拥有广泛社交网络的个人以及老年人为目标群体。

“如果你拥有良好的人脉网络，你的下线可以很快建立起来，你的上线也会从中受益，”他向AsiaOne解释道。

8月份，AsiaOne发现社交媒体上出现了各种警告“南宁骗局”的帖子。

其中一段视频是由新加坡房地产经纪人弗雷迪·林制作的，他声称自己曾两次被告知在南宁有“投资”机会。

这位 41 岁的男子在接受 AsiaOne 采访时表示，今年 5 月他和一位朋友见面时，朋友提出了在 6 月假期和他的家人一起去南宁度假的想法。

林先生并未起疑心，认真考虑了这个想法，并与妻子商量了一下。

然后，在六月初，他偶然遇到另一位朋友，这位朋友也以类似的方式与他攀谈起来，并提到了南宁。

“气氛很轻松。他们俩先是说去了南宁——一个非常值得一游且消费低廉的地方。然后慢慢地，他们就聊起了这个投资机会，”他回忆道。

林先生表示，他没有被告知太多关于这项投资的信息，只知道这与城市发展有关。

他觉得在这么短的时间内被人两次搭讪很奇怪，于是上网查看，发现网上有关于传销骗局的帖子。

@freddielimhdbcondosg 短时间内，两个不同的朋友邀请我去南宁，说是有个“投资机会”。我做了一些调查，发现很多讨论都让人觉得很可疑。有人遇到过类似的情况吗？#庞氏骗局 #金融知识 #南宁 ♬ 原创音乐 - @freddielim.realtor

新加坡外交部和警方周五表示，新加坡公民在海外旅行或居住时，须遵守所在国家的法律。

“新加坡公民应注意，在受邀参与涉及招募参与者或预先支付大笔款项的计划时，无论该计划是在海外还是在本地，都应保持谨慎。”

lim.kewei@asiaone.com

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