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Author | Mu He
Edit | Mu He
Cheung cooperated with the police in investigating the JPEX incident and was accused of being involved in a Ponzi scheme.
According to the brokerage company, since March last year, JPEX has found Zhang Zhilin through the agency to cooperate in advertising and provided relevant proof.
However, after learning in May that JPEX was regulated by the SFC, Zhang Zhilin asked to stop using his portrait for promotional purposes.
Then in September, he officially terminated his cooperation agreement with the advertising agency.
On September 19, after the police invited Zhang Zhilin to participate in the investigation of the JPEX incident, he immediately issued a statement clarifying that he was only actively cooperating with the police investigation, and said that he had ended all relations with the company.
It seems that in fact, because it has previously gained the trust of others (including the daughter of a Malaysian tycoon, Chuang Simin, etc.), the fraud has been successful for a while: there have been written notices and video explanations, and they have continued to claim that 'more than 18 lists need to be fully completed', but they are not good at explaining the license to persuade them to have the power (can compensate the money absorber), and it seems that they have not returned to all investors transferable high-quality short positions, ready to get the signing issuance, consume time and increase risk, customers can wait and see, resolutely do not buy low, medium and high yield black money group (JPEX) "Things are just beginning to come to light and ferment.
As for another artist involved in the case, Zhuang Simin, she was not only accused of being a "bitter master", but also suspected of being a brusher.
A video circulating widely online shows her teaching people how to open an account and recommending JPEX for deals by providing links to herself.
This raised questions among netizens about the commission she might get from it.
In fact, at a public event on September 16, Mr. Zhuang described himself as one of the sufferers, saying losses reached six figures, while also claiming that some of the participants had made a profit.
He then immediately returned to Malaysia and, as a result, was questioned about "absconding". Then the 19th network broke the news that he wanted to encourage him to return to Hong Kong to "surrender", and responded with a smile that the next time I watch the Cantonese version of the film "Women's Prison", the mysterious performance is too much cooperation! At 17:37 on the evening of the 20th: Encouraging the appearance of announcing the flight time for two consecutive days, and the other members of the Gong Rui Mo endorsement organization (pay attention to the wording) did not mention that the stuffing was too funny, Zhuang Simin posted a screenshot of the movie starring Asa in "Women's Prison", and said "I will come back immediately in two days to support it".
On the 21st, she flew from Malaysia to Hong Kong and went to the Commercial Crime Bureau for investigation, and did not leave until after 3 a.m.
When asked by the media if she could go to jail, she responded: "neurosis" and stressed that "the clean one cleanses himself".
At a press conference held on the 19th, the police announced the information that JPEX and KOLs were involved in fraud, providing false and misleading statements to promote so-called "low risk and high return" investment products.
This guiding propaganda technique is one of the reasons why the police suspect that the people involved are conspiring to defraud.
To this end, in addition to asking celebrities to assist, the police also arrested some Internet celebrities, including Lin Zuo, who loves to rub various popular events. Lin Zuo is once called Gigi Mak's ex-boyfriend and current Hiromi Hao Ren (loud cheers from the waist festival) He always gains exposure through his words, and the exposure area was terminated by the insurance company in June this year due to inappropriate remarks. Then he called himself the "godfather of speculation" and claimed to have let his mother make a lot of money by buying coins.
On September 9, he also rented an office called "Lin Zuo Coin Speculation" in Central for 260,000 yuan and opened it as a storefront.
There are reports that the Lin Zuo currency speculation project collapsed within half a month.
They recruited well-known people such as Mak Lingling to publicize it, and there was even news that Mak Lingling thought that the location was the best place for Hong Kong Jiuyun.
However, less than 24 hours after the police arrested Lin Zuo on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud, he was released and a press conference was held.
However, at the press conference, he did not answer questions related to JPEX, only said that he could sleep peacefully, and expressed complaints about financial losses and emotional injuries.
Mai Lingling, who has seen feng shui wrong many times, has become one of the biggest losers.
In addition, Internet celebrity Chen Yi was originally a gossip magazine reporter and actively promoted the JPEX project after switching to the KOL field.
She was also arrested and released on bail, and immediately used her popularity to shoot a video titled "A Day I Spent in Detention: Million Bail" to maintain exposure and emphasize that "the purifier cleanses himself", but then said that she was going to travel to Japan, causing netizens to question her true intentions.
However, Taiwanese spokesperson Chen 0-jiu recently responded to the accusations of netizens that he had ended his cooperation with JPEX at the end of July 2023.
Although some netizens revealed that Chen was warned of the risks of this matter as early as last year, he still said that he did not want to miss the next opportunity that could become a large-scale exchange cooperation, and joined the currency group as a spokesperson on June 15 to set up a studio.
Although it claimed to have stopped the collaboration in July, in August it led the team to visit the JPEX blockchain building and displayed its endorsement ad on the building until September.
So, what exactly is "JPEX"? Why are so many celebrities and influencers attracting them? Is it another scam? In fact, the original JPEX was just a platform for trading virtual currencies.
You can buy or sell virtual currencies such as Bitcoin in this place just like stocks.
Later, they launched a bank-like model that allowed users to deposit and provide high-interest services, and after handing over their virtual currency keys to the platform, they could get an annual interest yield of about 19%.
At the same time, JPEX also issued its own virtual currency called "JPC", similar to the wealth management products launched by banks.
As you can see, there is clearly something wrong with this model.
When withdrawing money from the bank, we have to block the input password, so why can the virtual platform ask for our private key? And the interest rate of 19% per year is more terrible than usury.
But why can such an obviously risky project fool so many people? The first is that JPEX employs large-scale marketing tactics and constantly looks for various celebrity endorsements.
Just as the famous saying of the same internal entertainment said: "As long as the pig has hundreds of hot searches every year, it can also become the top stream", JPEX also belongs to this situation, and achieved wide exposure after asking Zhang Zhilin to endorse and Zhuang Simin to recommend.
Recently, an investment platform called JPEX has caused a stir in Hong Kong.
Their advertisements appeared on the subway and they also entered offline exchange shops, which were places where renminbi was exchanged for Hong Kong dollars.
The store staff will continue to promote customers to enter the JPEX platform, and promise various benefits such as high interest rates and discounts to "attract new ones".
In the face of such a powerful marketing method, it is difficult for people to resist greed and not try.
Hong Kong media also interviewed some JPEX users who had been scammed.
Although some people can detect that there may be a problem behind such high interest rates, they still firmly believe that they are the chosen children and can exit in time before the "big picture is decided".
In fact, in the past few years, similar scams have sprung up, only in a slight variation, but there will always be people who fall for it.
Looking back at the milk culture case that caused a sensation in Hong Kong in 1991: an Australian businessman came to Hong Kong to set up a company to represent the Swiss makeup brand 333 series products, which required the use of yeast elements.
Fraud began: investors needed to buy "yeast seeds" from the company, and a month after the seeds were placed in milk, the substance produced on the surface was declared as the desired yeast element.
There are different grades of options for buying these seeds, the lowest price is 32,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the company will buy back "yeast elements" for 5,000 Hong Kong dollars every month, and investors can get 28,000 Hong Kong dollars in net profit in a year.
Although the first reaction when we see such a story now is strange, people were convinced at the time.
The victim's family once recalled that they had started helping their mother make this thing when they were young, and found that the fermented milk was very smelly.
But because they can make money, they choose to cover their noses and continue to cooperate with their mothers.
After the "yeast element" was handed over to the company, the bag was not opened for inspection, but immediately handed over to another department for checking.
The goal of "receiving" is obviously not the smelly milk, but only how much principal you have in your hands.
The end result was similar: the "yeast seeds" that the company announced the closure of its business and sold for more than 30,000 Hong Kong dollars were found to be actually skim milk powder after testing.
The amount involved was as high as more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars, the company owner was sentenced to prison, the investor suffered heavy losses, and only a room full of smelly milk remained.
Similar cases include the 2005 Hong Kong "Seed Gold Case," which sold not seeds but "corporate members."
The platform offers to purchase goods at low prices and resell them to company retailers at high prices to commit fraud.
They advertise that they only need to pay 188 as a membership fee first, and pay 3,500 payments per month for a total of 14 installments, and they can get more than 140,000 yuan, with a return rate of up to 300%.
In addition, examples of "Ponzi schemes" are not uncommon.
After entering the Internet era, cryptocurrencies became their new favorite means.
Just last August, a Thai celebrity named Pinky used foreign exchange investment to carry out a scam, claiming profits as high as 60%-80%.
In the end, the amount involved exceeded 2 billion baht (about 300 million yuan), the number of victims reached 9,824, and Pinky was arrested by the police.
Although it was difficult for the victims to recover their investment, Pinky was released on bail for the film launch and is still active on Instagram.
And those suffering owners have a hard time recovering their losses, and in the end only the tears of innocent victims remain.
Summary: In my view of money, if a so-called investment can bring a high rate of return that exceeds the market average, we must be careful.
No one does not think that they have a lot of money, how can the opportunity to really make money be shared with everyone for free? At the same time, we must not underestimate humanity and overestimate our own judgment.
Although many people see what lies behind this fraud pattern and are wary, they still believe that they are the lucky ones who can make a fortune before the big picture is set.
, feel that as long as you exit in time, there will be no problem.
There are already many cruel examples in reality.
Whether it is fungi, gold, or the virtual currency that has developed to the present, the "seed" greed must be cautious.
In addition, I also want to remind artists to cherish their reputation and not accept all endorsement opportunities, otherwise when the thunderstorm comes, the entire artist career and reputation will be damaged.
Making money is good, but it often comes at a cost.
Hong Kong and Taiwan version of "desperate": the case involved is as high as 1 billion, and the artist Internet celebrity assists in the investigation, what do you think about the events described in the article?