2011-03-24 07:58

BEIJING - More than 100 students from six universities in Central China's Hunan province were lured into aggressively organized pyramid schemes in March - schemes that have led to people being held and coerced into recruiting others for their money.

A publicity official with the provincial government's education department surnamed Zhou confirmed on Wednesday the department has received reports that some 100 students were lured into the schemes and made to hand over money to join the pyramids.

Police are continuing to investigate the cases, he said.

In these pyramid schemes, people are compensated not only for sales they generate but also for the number of others they recruit, creating a hierarchy of levels. In recent years in China, those involved in pyramid schemes have detained their prey, making their families send money and forcing them to cheat more people.

Graduates have become a major target for pyramid scheme organizers, who make use of students' inexperience and anxiety over job hunting, Lu Xianhua, vice-director of the Hunan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

In one recent example, a senior college student received a call from a former classmate inviting him to apply for a high-paid job in Hengyang city, Hunan province.

The student was sent to a hostel where more than 10 people were squeezed into several shabby rooms, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.

He soon discovered that everything he did, including eating and sleeping, was under close supervision. Moreover, he was forced to ask his parents to send money for his membership fees.

One of the student's friends contacted police after he received several text messages asking for help. Police then rushed to rescue him and 40 other victims.

The case is anything but unique.

Last year, police in Hunan caught 895 key suspects of pyramid schemes and rescued 17,100 victims, a Xinhua report cited official statistics as saying.

Chen Jianqiang, a former victim who did pyramid selling for three years, now works as a full-time volunteer at the China Anti-Pyramid Promotional Association in Beijing. He said pyramid selling is "a job of lying and brainwashing".

After being lured by a college roommate who promised him "big money", he quit his first job as a salesman in an IT company in Shanghai and paid 2,900 yuan ($440) to enter a pyramid scheme. He gradually realized that almost all his income came from recruiting more people into the organization, and he even dragged his elders into the scheme.

Chen Shuguang, an official from the Hunan education authority, said that university students should be cautious when looking for jobs and try to find out more about potential employers through multiple channels in order to make rational decisions.