April 17, 2025 update: Chinese people don't deceive each other. Brothers who returned to the country to work on foreign projects, how did it go afterwards?

The gambling and financial sectors have increasingly opted to go international in recent years. From making easy money through ad placements a few years ago to now facing stricter platform regulations, frequent account closures, and fierce competition among peers, the cost of acquiring traffic has surged, prompting many teams to switch to a more refined and detailed customer acquisition model.

Those familiar with this refined approach know it's labor-intensive; not everyone is naturally gifted at engaging deeply in conversation, so talent is selected based on performance, leading to high turnover and a need for a talent reserve.

Meanwhile, due to continuous policy crackdowns, most teams, even those operating overseas, dare not operate within China. Companies relying on this refined conversation model eventually face several scenarios:

1. Transform into a park with harsh management, turning the ungifted into the gifted.

2. Locals recruit fellow locals, ensuring a stable supply of talent and usually safety, ultimately filtering out the performers.

3. High labor costs and inability to recruit on base salary alone lead to a vicious cycle where old employees don't perform out of fear of no one working, deterring new hires (most cases).

4. Return to China, leveraging the low cost and dense population to cultivate a high-performing team.

The main reason the first three types are hesitant to return to China is the fear of legal sanctions. So, what about those who do return?

They generally believe that Chinese do not cheat each other, they are morally justifiable, and encounter less ideological resistance from employees; secondly, no police reports mean relative legal safety; thirdly, they operate over VPNs with servers abroad, making their activities untraceable.

However, recently:

In July 2022, the Public Security Bureau of Shunqing District, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, successfully dismantled a "foreign plate" telecom fraud gang, arresting over 50 suspects.

On July 9, 2023, police in Xiangyang, Hubei, captured a "foreign plate" fraud gang that had swindled foreigners out of 1.7 million over three months, claiming "Chinese do not cheat Chinese."

On August 10, 2024, Xiangyang police arrested five suspects who set up a cryptocurrency investment platform and scammed foreigners by posing as beautiful women.

In April 2025, the People's Court of the Economic Development Zone in Heze, Shandong Province, tried a case of telecom network fraud targeting Indians.

So, how did they get caught?

1. International joint law enforcement, with victim countries pressuring the target country, which cooperates with law enforcement.

2. Being reported (by applicants, employees, neighbors, anyone).

3. Living luxuriously and high-profile, with large sums of money suddenly entering banks and attracting investigation (many cases).

4. Monitored by the Sky Net system, which is very powerful in China and even uses "official" VPNs to collect data.

Importantly, in China, authorities can detain suspects first and search for evidence later; even without a complainant, if they suspect illegal activity, they can arrest. The charges are generally as follows:

1. Fraud.

2. Operating a gambling house.

3. Illegal use of information networks.

4. Concealing or disguising the proceeds of crime.

5. The versatile charge of illegal business operations.

The teams that have been arrested typically face sentences ranging from several years to over a decade, with the recent Heze case resulting in a fourteen-year sentence for the main perpetrator.

These cases and logic prove that operating a "foreign plate" in China carries significant risks, and there is no perfect method that allows one to thrive financially without consequences.

Although legally safer abroad, staffing is challenging. In China, staffing is easier, but the risks are high. Moreover, legal and personal safety abroad is no longer guaranteed.

In conclusion, the park model remains supreme. By threatening personal safety, the industry miracle of "nothing is impossible with hard work" is perpetuated.

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