60% Monthly Returns Bait, AI Deepfakes: The Full Chain…

In July 2026, investigations revealed a sophisticated four-step criminal chain targeting retail investors through impersonation of legitimate Chinese securities firms. By leveraging AI-driven identity forgery and counterfeit mobile applications, fraudsters have successfully deceived individuals into transferring funds under the guise of exclusive stock tips and guaranteed high-return investment opportunities. This systemic threat has prompted over 30 major securities firms to issue urgent risk warnings to the public.

What happened

The fraud begins with precision lead generation via social media and unsolicited phone calls, where perpetrators lure victims into private chat groups. To build credibility, attackers employ AI face-swapping and voice cloning technologies to mimic well-known financial analysts and brokerage executives. Notable cases include the impersonation of Sun Jinju, vice president of Kaiyuan Securities, and former China Merchants Securities strategist Zhang Xia. These forged personas use stolen practitioner data and doctored identification cards to establish false authority.

Once trust is established, victims are directed to download sophisticated but counterfeit brokerage apps. The scammers employ psychological tactics, such as promising monthly returns of up to 60% and 100% IPO allotment rates, while enforcing strict confidentiality agreements that threaten the loss of principal if the activity is disclosed. In a critical phase of the scam, funds never reach a legitimate securities account. Instead, victims are instructed to transfer money to obscure channels, including jewelry stores, gold bullion purchases, or direct cash payments, under the pretense of circumventing regulatory hurdles.

The effectiveness of these attacks is bolstered by the easy availability of public professional data, which criminals harvest to create realistic, high-quality deepfakes. According to internal reports from a southern Chinese brokerage, the scale of such impersonation attempts is surging, with thousands of leads recorded annually. Regulators and financial institutions emphasize that investors must verify all credentials through official channels, as the sophisticated integration of AI and social engineering has made these fraudulent chains increasingly difficult for the average retail investor to distinguish from legitimate professional services.