Seniors alerted to danger of illegal fundraising activities

The Ministry of Public Security has revealed five typical cases of illegal fundraising through selling elderly care products and pitching "elderly care" investment projects, urging older adults to stay vigilant and avoid falling victim to such crimes.

All five cases, disclosed by the ministry on Monday, involved victims — most of them seniors — being lured into purchasing products and services or making investments in the hope of earning high interest.

In one case, a person surnamed Wang and others ran a funeral service company and solicited investments through a scheme involving the sale of burial plots from 2016 to 2019. The company promised that if buyers returned the plots one year after purchase, they would receive a refund on the purchase price along with interest of 8 to 15 percent, the ministry said.

In May 2022, police in Baotou, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, began investigating the case. By the time the scheme was uncovered, the company had raised more than 70 million yuan ($9.74 million) from more than 800 people, 80 percent of whom were age 60 and older.

Wang and 10 others were later convicted by a court in Baotou in December 2024.

In another case, a group of people operating a retirement home — including a person surnamed Liao — had engaged in illegal fundraising since 2014 by offering discounted accommodation services and annual interest of 8 to 11 percent to customers who paid deposits and promising to refund the deposits after three years.

By the time the illegal activities were detected by police, the group had collected about 400 million yuan from more than 3,000 people. Liao and 56 others were convicted by a court in Ezhou, Hubei province, in January.

The ministry's disclosure came about two months after the Supreme People's Procuratorate publicized four illegal fundraising cases, one of which also involved elderly care.

From November 2009 to December 2021, a person surnamed Shen recruited others to set up a company that launched elderly care tourism bases, hotels and holiday villas in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Yunnan, and offered related wealth management products without approval from financial regulatory authorities, the procuratorate said.

Audits showed that from August 2013 to December 2021, the company raised more than 5 billion yuan and failed to repay more than 1.5 billion yuan.

Several executives of the company have been convicted and sentenced. Interpol issued a red notice in September 2024 for Shen, who had fled overseas, the procuratorate said.

In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to crack down on illegal fundraising targeting older adults. Government departments have issued alerts urging the public to beware such schemes to avoid default risks.

In April 2024, the Ministry of Public Security and six other departments issued a guideline to strengthen the regulation of senior care facilities' solicitation, use and management of deposits to prevent refund failures, illegal fundraising or fraud.