Gold, mining machines, virtual currencies, the investment stories of "Chinese aunties"

“Chinese aunties are amazing. Wherever they go, there is lightning and fire, leaving nothing behind. The aunties have made the blockchain summit even more popular.”

Yang Yang, a hardcore miner who has been mining since 2011, described what he saw at a summit. "Middle-aged women stood in front of the sign-in wall and posters at the venue and posed in various excited poses for photos. The scene was like a blockbuster performance, and people couldn't help but stop and watch."

"Chinese aunties" are a magical force. Their purchasing power for gold caused the international gold price to record the largest single-day increase in 2013. The Wall Street Journal, which was founded in 1889, even coined the English word "dama" to describe them.

Recently, some media reported that "Chinese middle-aged women snatching gold is nothing new. As early as 2013, they punched speculators and kicked Wall Street tycoons, and even snatched gold overseas ."

Although the words are ridiculed, they just show that "Chinese aunties" should not be underestimated. What will happen when the aunties focus on blockchain mining?

01

"Chinese Aunties" suffered heavy losses

Recently, in a mining machine fraud case involving approximately 2 billion yuan in funds, one of the groups that suffered heavy losses was the "Chinese aunties".

They don’t know about blockchain mining, and many of them don’t even know how to mine. But they have become enthusiastic supporters of the blockchain project. In their eyes, mining is a profitable new direction in the blockchain field.

For some middle-aged and elderly people who can’t even use smartphones properly, how can they participate in blockchain mining, a project that many young people don’t understand?

The daughter of the victim, Aunt Cao, said that most of her mother and others joined this project through introductions from neighbors and friends.

After learning that the "mining machine" she bought had turned into a pile of scrap metal, Aunt Cao has been bedridden, and endless darkness has enveloped this ordinary family.

Aunt Cao is not the only victim. Many aunts have suffered the pain of losing their wealth. According to Aunt Cao's daughter, there are 20 to 30 people in their community who have been involved in the "mining machine" scam, involving tens of millions of yuan.

The reason why the aunts suffered heavy losses was that, on the one hand, they had accumulated a certain amount of wealth and controlled the family's financial power.

According to the "2017 China Women's Wealth Management Report", 63% of households in mainland my country are financially managed by women, and 80.6% of total household consumption is decided by women.

On the other hand, they are not well educated, are easily credulous, superstitious, and more easily brainwashed.

According to the most recent national census data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2010, less than 3% of women aged 50-69 had received higher education.

Being rich and easy to be cheated, aunts have become perfect targets for scammers. How were investors like Aunt Cao deceived?

02

2 billion mining machine scam

On October 29, 2018, after several twists and turns, Aunt Cao and her three companions finally had the "honor" to attend the meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Zhengzhou.

At the conference, the "promising" CAI coin attracted their attention, and the "Snail Interstellar Server" mining machine was also grandly launched.

The important highlight of this machine, which is claimed to be jointly developed by Zhongyuan Silicon Valley (actually "Lianxin Company"), Beijing IPFS Laboratory and others, is that it can mine two virtual currencies at the same time.

Aunt Cao said: "The mining machine company said that users can mine CAI before the IPFS token Filecoin goes online. After Filecoin goes online, users can dynamically switch according to the principle of maximizing profits, forming a dual mining of CAI and Filecoin."

"Recover your investment in two months, 0 risk, and make money without doing anything." Aunt Cao and her group were very excited after listening to the mining machine company's promotion. They felt that the train to financial freedom had arrived and they must not miss it.

He took out 1 million and purchased several mining machines. However, all his dreams of wealth came to an abrupt end on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2019.

Aunt Cao did not receive any gift from her husband, but received two announcements from AT Exchange and Lianxin Company respectively.

AT Exchange said that due to the platform being hacked, trading was suspended for about 3 months, all trading wallet systems were closed, and withdrawals were suspended. Lianxin Company issued an announcement that on February 7, the company's senior management participated in a roadshow in Silicon Valley, USA, and all future mining machines will be taken over by Silicon Valley, USA, and all CAI servers will participate in a new Silicon Valley project worth tens of billions of dollars.

These two announcements send out strong signals: as the only exchange for CAI coins, the suspension of trading by AT Exchange means that all coins cannot flow, while the announcement of Lianxin Company means that the company's senior management team has arrived in the United States.

"This means a crash," said one investor.

Like most investors, Aunt Cao’s dream was shattered, but she found it hard to accept this reality. All that was left was confusion and regret.

According to speculation from insiders, the funds involved in this mining machine may be around 2 billion.

03

Frequent cases of "Chinese aunties" being defrauded

In fact, it is not just in the mining business. With the popularity of blockchain, in recent years, virtual currency pyramid schemes have already targeted Chinese middle-aged women, who are the most common victims.

The "Baichuan Coin" pyramid scheme scam appeared in 2015. Zhou Yunhuang, the legal representative of Fujian Baichuan Coin Network Technology Co., Ltd., took less than a year to establish a multi-level pyramid-shaped "Baichuan Coin" pyramid scheme activity empire, involving more than 900,000 members in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, with as many as 253 levels of membership, and the amount involved was 2.1 billion yuan.

In November 2016, the Guangdong police cracked down on an illegal pyramid scheme involving "Hengxin". The gang offered commissions based on the number of people recruited, and lured members to recruit others through "Hengxin". In just four months, the gang attracted more than 160,000 members from 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country, with a total amount of nearly 200 million yuan involved.

In September 2017, the Haikou police in Hainan Province cracked the "Asia-Europe Coin" pyramid scheme. In just one year, the Asia-Europe Coin scam attracted more than 40,000 participants and absorbed more than 4 billion yuan.

On February 9, 2018, the Jinjiang People's Court made a first-instance judgment on the "Jinjiang Woke Financial Management MLM Case". The defendant Wang Liangmiao was convicted of organizing and leading MLM activities and was sentenced to 13 years in prison in accordance with the law. Woke Financial Management was established in March 2015. Under the banner of "Internet Finance", it developed members in 31 provinces across the country and in countries such as the Philippines and Singapore, attracted 350,000 registered users, and defrauded 5 billion yuan with air coins.

…

Veteran industry insiders believe that "blockchain + fraud" is often easy to succeed and it really hits the three mentalities of many "Chinese aunties".

The first is the desire for wealth. Blockchain is over-hyped in the absence of actual application scenarios and is often associated with "getting rich quickly ". Criminal gangs often use this desire to "get rich quickly" to hype up blockchain, which is very confusing to "Chinese aunties".

The second is the thinking trap of "the more high-profile, the more credible" . According to cases disclosed by the police, fraudulent pyramid schemes often "commit crimes in a high-profile manner", and even frequently hold "promotion meetings" in major high-end hotels at home and abroad, packaging gang members as blockchain experts through various self-media platforms, and high-profilely confuse victims.

The third is the speculative mentality of "making a quick buck and leaving". Many "Chinese aunties" clearly know that it is a scam, but still want to "take advantage of the situation" before the scam collapses.

04

Want to join the game and learn more

On the way to a blockchain salon, Lieyun Finance met an auntie who was out of breath and asking for directions. After learning that she was going to a meeting, they went together. It turned out that the auntie had just got off the plane and rushed to the venue. Auntie Wang is not tall, slightly fat, very fond of laughter, and quite talkative.

She told Lieyun Finance that she used to work at a post office and liked to invest in various commemorative coins. Her collection of coins at home has filled up the bookshelf. Recently, she saw on the news that mining Bitcoin during the flood season is good, so she wanted to take this opportunity to join the game. However, she did not know much about Bitcoin mining, so she wanted to take the opportunity of the meeting to learn more about it.

At the meeting, when many people were talking to each other, she was listening carefully and taking notes from time to time. Aunt Wang said that she didn't understand much, but her son told her that if you want to make money but don't study, you are no different from salted fish. In order to set a good example for her children, she must study hard.

As the flood season approaches, many miners have already set up their operations in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. Aunt Wang, who recently wanted to join the game, has lost many advantages. Without a deep understanding of the industry, her mining journey will not be smooth.

One netizen said: "Chinese aunties are all at the same level. When they make money, they don't know how they make it, but when they lose money, they will definitely defend their rights. "

Some netizens also said that in the gold blocking war between "financial tycoons" and "Chinese aunties", "Chinese aunties" won. However, in this battle of blockchain technology revolution, "Chinese aunties" have already lost.

Although they are all "Chinese aunties", not all aunties are the same. I believe that after learning, "Chinese aunties" will be different.

No matter what, when investing, safety comes first. If you are not careful in operation, you will shed tears.