Classic referral tactics meet financial scams
Here’s how the viral schemes worked over the past couple of years:
1. People get dragged into chat groups and bombarded with offers like “Add our WeChat to claim free XXX.”
2. Once you add their WeChat, they tell you the only way to get it is to post a promotional moment on your feed—usually “celebrating XXX” with “Add them to claim free XXX.”
3. To make it look legit, they send along a flood of product images plus screenshots of “other people’s” orders, then tell you to post one more moment: “The promo is real! I just added them and claimed my free XXX.”
That’s how they spread. Then they pull everyone into a group where “actors” start guiding you to do fake orders for cashback rewards. After you complete a few tasks, they push you into “investing.” Finally, you can’t withdraw any money, and they vanish with your cash.
In this script, everyone in the group has a role—except you, the victim:
One account plays the “group admin” who posts tasks, paints false promises about the “promo,” and drives the plot forward.
Another plays the “skeptic” who initially challenges the scheme and even argues with the admin, then decides to give it a shot. After tasting small wins, they post screenshots of successful withdrawals. That emotional rollercoaster makes it easy for the real victim to empathize and fall for it.
A third account poses as a “whale,” dropping screenshots of ever-larger investment returns and flashing headlines like “Earn over 10k a day” to heat up the victim’s excitement. The rest are “background actors” posting small-order screenshots, chiming in with spontaneous praise, playing along, and keeping the atmosphere buzzing—all to boost credibility.
Viewed from above, this is a textbook brush-sweeping scam wrapped in the disguise of a “promo event”—a classic social-engineering script. Once the victim gets swept up and invests, the next act almost always involves the “customer service” rep refusing withdrawal, citing “timeout” or “wrong operation,” and demanding more tasks and bigger deposits before any cashback is released.