Every reporter: Du Wei, Wen Menghua, Ding Zhouyang Every editor: Chen Junjie
Bet on a "hot hit" and make a lot of money. Under the guise of a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make money," movie shares are packaged as "financial products" and distributed to retail investors, but many participants come away dismal. Is it a scam or a chaotic investment failure?
A month ago, "Daily Economic News" published an article "More than 600 million yuan in film and television investment fraud shocked the country, single mother lost 1.2 million yuan!" "Revealing the truth that this post-90s filmmaker used "industry practices" to defraud money" truly presents the "grey curtain" of the industry hidden in the "8¡17" film and television investment fraud case.
The Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau told reporters that the above-mentioned cases are expected to have more than 3,000 victims. Because the victims are spread across the country and there are so many victims, there are still some victims who have not yet reported the case. After the report was published, the reporter received numerous emails from readers, most of whom said that their experiences were exactly the same as the "8¡17" film and television investment fraud case. "First I entered the stock recommendation group, and soon the 'stock recommendation teacher' began to introduce 'film and television big guys' to introduce film and television investment projects to everyone."
Daily Economic News and the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau launched an investigation into the "8¡17" film and television investment fraud After collecting the clues of the case, many "victims" received emails from readers
said that looking back now, those methods were not smart. "But at that time, I just had a hot head and felt that I couldn't miss this good opportunity." Financial workers with rich investment experience, retired senior engineers, and executives of electronic companies... These groups with social experience and better living environment, Why are you still involved?
The following is unfolded in the form of the interviewee's self-report:
The loan debt "rolled" to one million for the Internet investment company, and the bank employee feared to become a dishonest person
Narrator: Liu Jian (pseudonym), 30 years old +, bank employee
Jump in It has been more than three years since I got into this âpitâ of film and television investment, but I still havenât climbed out.
I was persuaded to invest in two online movies (hereinafter referred to as the online movies) "Lan So-and-so" and "Journey to the West", spending a total of 300,000 yuan. Because of this incident, I am now in debt of nearly one million, and I am about to become a dishonest person!
Proof of transfer provided by the interviewee
In 2020, I entered a stock exchange group established by a big V. At the beginning, everyone was discussing stocks. Later, a group of friends said that the stock market is not good now, so it is better to invest in movies, especially online movies, which are very profitable.
I majored in finance, and I was initially cautious about film and television investments that I didnât know much about. So I studied for a while on my own about the content of online university accounts, and specifically checked whether the online universities recommended in the stock group had the qualifications. To this end, I also went to the production company of Wangda University to have a look on the spot. Make sure that the Internet University is real and the company is also real.
At that time, I had some savings and was planning to buy a house. People in the group who advised me to invest said, "The money you have now is only enough to buy a small house. When you get the profits from the investment network, you can buy a villa." I thought that the down payment was not enough anyway, and many people in the stock group said they had invested and posted screenshots of the transfers, so I invested as soon as I got the idea.
Most of the "victims" were attracted by the high returns of the movie (provided by the interviewee unrelated to the picture and text)
Since July 2020, I have invested all the money I raised in "Lan" by cashing out credit cards, asking relatives to help with loans, etc. So-and-so" and "Journey to the West So-and-so". I am full of expectations for the release of "Lan So-and-so" in 2021. At that time, the movie's playback volume on the video platform looked good. I thought that if it were calculated at 4 yuan a click, the income would be very good... But after confirming with the investment company Later, I learned that the calculation was based on the member's effective clicks. How many were the final clicks? I don't know, only the investment companies can provide the data. According to their share, I lost all my money.
When I went back to visit the group that encouraged us to invest, I found out that it had been disbanded. I could only go to the big online production company that I had seen in person, but they told me that the person who asked me to invest was not one of theirs. Employees are just entrusted by the promotion company.
In 2022, I went to the police station to call the police. The police said that I was not defrauded because the Internet University was real and was broadcast online, but my income did not meet expectations. I was unwilling to give in and stayed at this major online production company for many days in a row. They were worried that I would do something drastic and comforted me by saying, "We will help you find a new investor and transfer your share of the movie, but they may not take all of it."
Within a few days, the company contacted me and told me that someone was willing to buy "Lan So-and-so", which I invested 200,000 yuan in, and refunded me 80,000 yuan. I'm very confused. "Lan So-and-so" has already been released and has box office results, so why would anyone continue to invest in it? The explanation they gave me was that the online movie has three years of profit rights after it is released.
Photo provided by interviewee
However, no one watched it when it was released on the Internet. Will it suddenly become popular later? I think the subsequent gains will be almost negligible. It was just that they knew I had called the police, so they gave me some money back to calm the matter. And another online movie "Journey to the West" has not yet been launched, so I got back most of my investment.
For this reason, they asked me to sign a special agreement, and I could not pursue it further, including not mentioning this matter on social platforms. This made me even more convinced that I was suspected of being cheated, because I didn't know the true production cost of the film at all, and they were asking for exorbitant prices.
What makes me sleepless is that the debts I borrowed more than 3 years ago to invest in the Internet have now reached nearly one million, including more than 600,000 yuan in credit cards and more than 300,000 yuan in credit loans. On the 25th of this month, I have a credit card and I have to pay it back, but I will definitely not be able to pay it back.
Now, not only did I not buy a house, I also got myself into debt. Once I become a dishonest person, I may not be able to keep my job at the bank. If they are fired, parents in their 60s simply cannot bear such a blow.
I am telling my own experience in the hope of warning everyone not to invest in film and television easily, because you will never make money beyond your ability.
Targeting the elderly under the guise of "doing charity", the movie has been released for 3 months but it is still selling shares
Narrator: Zhang Xin (pseudonym), 70+ years old, retiree
My wife and I first came into contact with film investment. It was a recommended stock group that I found on the Internet. After the stock "Teacher Zhou" talked about stocks several times, he said that he participated in the investment of "I am not the God of Medicine" and invested 500,000 yuan and finally made 3.5 million yuan. He said that he There are relevant channels that can help us invest together.
Later, "Teacher Zhou" found Zhejiang Dongyang Changyi Linkage Co., Ltd. (Dongyang Changyi for short) and recommended the movie "Smell the Smoke" to us. I checked at that time and found that Dongyang Changyi was indeed one of the co-producers, so I invested 1.08 million yuan and bought a 0.6% investment share in the film. Later, I persuaded my lover and he also invested 540,000 yuan. After "Smell the Smoke", I also invested in two movies: "Source: Rainbow" with 240,000 yuan and "Medal of the Dawn" with 180,000 yuan. We invested a total of 2.04 million yuan in the three movies.
My wife and I are both over 70 years old. We usually donât give up food and clothing ourselves. The money we have worked hard for decades and saved through our teeth is now gone. Our health has been getting worse and worse in recent years, but we dare not let our children know. When we invested, we had no doubts at all. We just thought that if we made money, we could do good things. "Teacher Zhou" also said that when we make money, he would take us to the mountainous areas to do charity and build primary schools.
It has been four years since I invested in a movie, and it has been more than three years since I filed a lawsuit. At that time, I went to a Shanghai law firm to file a lawsuit, and I paid 150,000 yuan in legal fees. But now I haven't gotten back a penny, and I paid more than 30,000 yuan in legal fees in advance. Why didn't
appeal again? Because many people in our group have filed lawsuits, but almost no one can get their money back, so I think if I appeal again, the possibility of success is very small, and a legal fee is wasted.
Most of our group is elderly, the oldest one is 89 years old. There was an elderly couple who invested 960,000 yuan in "Medal of the Dawn". After the contract expired, they found that they could not get their money back. The wife was depressed and had died of illness.
The respondent provided
There is also a 73-year-old retiree Liu Dan (pseudonym). She was a senior engineer before. In July 2019, she spent more than 700,000 yuan to buy 0.24% of the film "Source¡Rainbow". Investment income rights, and later spent 180,000 yuan to buy a share of "Medal of Dawn".
But in fact, before Liu Dan purchased "Source: Rainbow", the film had been released in April 2019, with a box office of 4,365 yuan. In 2020, Liu Dan spent more than 20,000 yuan to hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit. She mailed the lawyer's letter to Dongyang Changyi, but the building was empty and the lawyer's letter was returned.
Compared with "Source¡Rainbow", more people in our group invested in "Medal of the Dawn". Zhang Qin (pseudonym), who contacted you before, is a teacher working abroad. His father also invested more than 1 million yuan in "Medal of the Dawn"; and Li, who has retired in his 60s and is helping his daughter take care of her children in the United States. Ming (pseudonym) also spent 120,000 yuan to buy "Medal of Dawn". He also went to court, but he didn't win. He even made several trips to Beijing for the court hearing on this matter. Now regarding "Medal of the Dawn," we have absolutely no idea what progress it is in, and we don't even know if it's even finished filming.
Later we discovered that the contract texts for the two movies "The Source: Rainbow" and "Medal of the Dawn" were exactly the same. After searching layer by layer, we found that the legal representative of Snowball Film (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Snowball Film) is Su Chuanqin. According to the information we have, he was born in 1991 and is from Fujian. However, no one has come to court to respond to the company's civil cases, and all of them have been judged by default. The company's accounts have been sealed by multiple courts, and the account balance is zero. Xueqiu Movies, Su Chuanqin, etc. were listed as dishonest and height-restricted personnel by many courts. The company was emptied of people and the suspects were nowhere to be found.
Reporting materials provided by interviewees
Currently, there are nearly 50 people in our group, with a total investment amount of more than 14 million yuan.
I met the "Beautiful Producer" who invests heavily in the Internet. In the end, I was not even sure whether she was a real person.
Zhang Yujun, 40+ years old, is an executive of an electronic information company.
In October 2023, I met her through a dating app.
We added WeChat and started chatting online. She took the initiative to communicate with me, and we would say good morning to each other every morning. I thought she was young, beautiful and knowledgeable, and I gradually began to trust her.
We met later. She said that she was a producer and had invested in and produced the "Detective Dee Series" Internet movies, which had over 100 million views and very good profits. After meeting
for more than two months, she said that there is now a new film, which is also an Internet major, with a total cost of 12 million yuan. It is a very good investment opportunity, and she can give me a 1.25% investment share, which means that I can invest 150,000 yuan.
I was a little skeptical at the time, but later she called and said: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All my shareholder friends have come to sign the contract. Don't make it difficult for me." I thought to myself that the money was not that much, and due to emotional factors, I was in a hurry. I hurriedly signed the contract.
The reporter received news from readers about
. The more he thought about it, the more wrong he became. The film was later released in November, but it was not like a major online movie that could reach a total investment of 12 million. Looking at this contract again, if I ask for a refund, it will "constitute a fundamental breach of contract" and I will be refunded up to 20% of my investment. Even her name I suspected was fake. She claimed to be a well-known producer in the industry. The lawyer told me that I could transfer money through WeChat. When the query showed part of her real name, I found that the last character of her name was the same as her own. s difference. So she didn't dare to confirm whether this person was herself.
I learned from a lawyer that there are other people who, like me, were deceived out of love because of the "Di Renjie Series". One lady invested 200,000 yuan and even left her original family to pursue "love."
Be wary of the âthousand-layer bureauâ of film and television investment
By talking to many industry insiders and lawyers about the experiences of a large number of victims, they extracted the âthousand-layer bureauâ of âfilm and television investmentâ and every detail deserves vigilance.
1. The fictitious identity of experts confuses people: uses fictitious identities, such as professional "teachers", veterans in the film industry, etc. to win the trust of investors and let investors join him in investing in a certain film project. In the end, it is very likely that the movie project is fictional, or that it will start shooting successfully in the future and end badly at the box office.
2. Use emotions to seduce people: plays the "emotional card" and gets closer by asking for help. Once an emotional connection is established, it will induce film and television investment in various ways and create traps.
3. Lies about high yields tempt people: recommends stock groups to attract people to join. After everyone relaxes their vigilance, they promote the high yields and high returns of a certain movie investment. In the end, it often ends up with "investment failure", making it difficult for investors to defend their rights.
4. Borrowing online movies and online dramas are attractive: In addition to traditional theater movies, online movies and short dramas are often easily exploited by criminals. These two types of platforms have accounting mechanisms, and itâs easy to get excited when you see those beating numbers. And many producers will also seek investment at the beginning of the project, so it is quite confusing. But in fact, Wangda, which seems to spend less money than investing in theater movies, has extremely high investment risks. Don't be tempted to gamble with small amounts. Ordinary people may end up in huge debts due to "big bets" by investors.
Reporters from the "Daily Economic News" called all the film and television companies mentioned by the above-mentioned whistleblower. Some of the calls could not be connected, and some of them were empty... Several industry professionals and lawyers suggested: Sometimes contract disputes are often If the appearance is inconsistent with the facts on a large scale, causing serious property losses, or is determined to have no true business intention, and involves a large scale, a large number of people, and a large amount, it may constitute a criminal offense. Individual investors should not get involved in film and television investment easily.
Daily Economic News
