Before paying someone to run your online store, take shop-opening training, or do «no-inventory» schemes, ask what extra fees follow and where sales numbers come from

These scams take a first fee, then keep extracting more with «upgrade packages», advance goods payment, and unlock fees. Backend orders and earnings may be faked; withdrawal fails when you try. Fake-order boosting is itself illegal; agencies caught are fined.

Cost

No money. Before paying, get three things: a written contract, the other company's full legal name, and refund terms. Pay only the company named in the contract—never a personal account. The hard part is not paying on the spot when shown «trainee earns over 10000 a month» screenshots.

Benefit

Guangdong Higher People's Court ruled on an agency fraud: Jiang, Xu, and 55 others ran companies in Guangzhou, Nanning, and Hangzhou. The court found they «knew they lacked e-commerce agency capability and technical conditions» yet, in the name of running Taobao stores, induced 7711 victims to buy or upgrade «service packages», taking more than 52994000 yuan. Two lead defendants got 14 years and 13 years 6 months for fraud. The court said the scheme was «tightly designed» and «many victims were cheated again and again». Jiangsu Public Security in 2025 broke «no-inventory» cross-border e-commerce scams into four steps. First, social posts promising «zero foundation» and «no need to stock». Second, add you as «operations coach» and push a designated platform. Third, after you open a store a first order appears quickly; they have you prepay goods cost, saying the buyer's payment is frozen on the platform until receipt; then the backend invents large order volume so you keep adding money. Fourth, when you try to withdraw, «account anomaly» or «system maintenance» and more unlock fees or service charges. In one case Ms. Zhang advanced over 900000 yuan; the site went down in 3 days. Separately, an agency organized fake group-buys to boost rankings: market regulators fined it 100000 yuan; the platform withheld 50000 yuan of deposit; courts upheld the platform. The Supreme People's Court listed it as a 2026 typical case: «false transactions and fake-order reputation boosting are acts the law expressly prohibits». SAMR in 2025 also published a case: a company selling «one-click migrate» and «one-click dropship» software that scraped other platforms' listings was fined 530000 yuan. SAMR told operators not to commit «shop-stealing migration», «no-inventory trading», and similar violations. The Civil Code route: a contract signed under fraud may be revoked by court or arbitration within 1 year of discovering the fraud; after revocation, money taken must be returned (nationwide).

Notes

Pause on «zero foundation», «no need to stock», «low input, high return», or «guaranteed profit». Pause also if they want you to advance goods money into their designated platform. Before paying, check the other party's license and penalty records on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. Write service scope and refund-if-targets-miss into the contract. Keep chats, contracts, and transfer screenshots. If you already transferred, call 110 or 96110 at once for stop payment—section 8, item 2. If they did some work but results are poor, it is usually a contract dispute—negotiate, complain, or sue. Revocation needs litigation; ordinary first-instance procedure starts at 6 months; lawyer fees are on you; the other side may already be gone. Franchise-style pitches: check filing under item 5 first. Primary beneficiary: yourself.

Sources · 5

1. 广东省高级人民法院 (2023). 广东法院打击治理电信网络诈骗犯罪典型案例（案例三：蒋某、徐某等 55 人犯罪集团诈骗案）. gdcourts.gov.cn/gsxx/quanweifabu/anlihuicui/c…
2. 江苏省公安厅 (2025). 防范提示：无货源跨境电商，当心有诈！. gat.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2025/2/13/art_89956_11…
3. 最高人民法院 (2026). 最高人民法院发布依法规范平台经营、保护消费者合法权益典型案例（案例三：某代运营商诉某平台服务合同纠纷案）. court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/507691.html
4. 市场监管总局 (2025). 市场监管总局公布五起网络不正当竞争典型案例（案例一）. samr.gov.cn/xw/zj/art/2025/art_0d043840ec9445…
5. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第一百四十八、一百五十二、一百五十七条）. spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml