Chapter Ninety-One: Exposing the Fraud

Jiang Zheng read the book in his hand while watching the computer screen.

As he studied, he also chatted with the merchants Yang Po had given him.

“Brother, I’m asking in all sincerity. My shop has never had much business, so I was thinking of doing some paid orders to see whether I could save it.”

Jiang Zheng typed without expression.

“I already told you, I don’t do paid orders,” the other side replied.

“Brother, please accept this small token of my regard.” Jiang Zheng sent the message, then followed it with a red envelope worth one hundred.

This time the other side was silent for quite a while. Then he clicked the red envelope and sent back a message: “Little brother, to tell you the truth, this kind of thing is done in secret. You’re making this difficult for me.”

“I understand! I understand!” Jiang Zheng sent back, then another red envelope.

“Like this, I’ll give you a contact. You can reach out to them yourself,” the other side messaged.

“Many thanks, Brother! Many thanks!” Jiang Zheng replied.

Soon after, a picture was sent over. Jiang Zheng took a screenshot and saved it.

“I’ve got the paid-order contact information for the last merchant too,” Jiang Zheng murmured.

Next, he needed to pick out the contact information of the scammers who had cheated Yang Po from among all these contacts.

The method was simple: compare them.

These were all merchants Yang Po had used for paid orders, which meant the scammers had to be the shared contact among them.

Put all the merchants’ lists together, compare them, and find the common contact information. That contact was very likely to belong to the scammers.

The workload was not large; a simple comparison would do.

Very quickly, Jiang Zheng organized everything.

To his surprise, there was more than one shared contact.

He had anticipated this possibility.

It was the outcome he least wanted to face. The best case would have been to find the answer directly.

More than one shared contact meant he would still have to identify the scammer among them.

What reassured Jiang Zheng was that he had narrowed the scope considerably. Finding the scammer among just a few people was still no easy task; it would be a serious test of his acting skills.

Jiang Zheng rubbed his brow, then sent messages to those people.

“Hello, I heard you offer part-time work here. Is that true?”

After sending the message, Jiang Zheng lowered his head to read and waited for a reply.

Before long, someone answered: “We do part-time paid-order work here. Have you looked into it?”

Then the others gradually replied as well: “Yes, we’re recruiting paid-order part-timers here.”

“That’s right, we offer part-time work. If you’re interested, we can talk in detail.”

...

Looking at those replies, Jiang Zheng thought for a moment, then sent: “I heard from a classmate that paid-order part-time work isn’t very reliable.”

With that message, Jiang Zheng revealed something very important: that he was a student.

The main groups targeted for paid-order part-time work were two: students and housewives.

There were others too, of course, but these two were by far the most common.

Why?

Because most students were relatively naive and lacked judgment about many things. Most housewives, on the other hand, were in real need of money, and under that pressure, reason would slip away.

Revealing that he was a student was also a way to relax the scammers’ guard.

“We’re a legitimate paid-order platform. We wouldn’t do that kind of scam.”

“The waters of paid orders really are deep, but we’re a proper platform.”

...

The replies were all much the same, emphasizing that they were legitimate and not scammers.

“That’s great. I’ve been looking for part-time work for a long time and haven’t found anything. If possible, I’d like to understand it in detail.”

Jiang Zheng sent that message over.

This time, he revealed another crucial piece of information: he had been searching for work for a long time and still hadn’t found any, and he urgently needed a part-time job.

When a person is in urgent need, judgment falls again.

Jiang Zheng said this to lower the scammers’ vigilance, and also to lure them into the trap.

Soon, replies came one after another.

Jiang Zheng glanced through them. The gist was mostly the same: they were explaining what paid-order work was.

Though they dressed it up in grand language—how it could be done anytime, anywhere with just a phone, how one could easily make two or three hundred a day—Jiang Zheng did not believe a word of it. In fact, he found it almost laughable.

If the part-time work were really that good, why would they still be recruiting so aggressively? Why not have their own relatives and friends do it?

Jiang Zheng had always believed that pay matched ability.

If one could so easily make two or three hundred a day, then why were so many people still rising before dawn and laboring until dark just to earn three or four thousand a month?

Disbelief in his heart, belief still had to be voiced.

“Is that so? Wonderful. May I ask how I sign up?” Jiang Zheng sent back.

This time the reply came very quickly.

“Signing up is simple. You first pay an enrollment fee. Then a dedicated customer-service representative will teach you how to do paid orders, including some of the taboos involved, and will explain everything clearly to you...”

The long-winded explanation boiled down to two words: pay money.

“Still have to pay?” Jiang Zheng sent.

“Of course you have to pay. It’s not much, just a few hundred yuan. You’ll earn it back in at most a few days, and after that it’s pure profit. And this money isn’t taken for nothing. We’ll have customer service train you, and we’ll also assign paid-order resources to you. Those that don’t charge are all scammers. A legitimate paid-order platform always requires payment upon enrollment.”

The other side sent back.

Jiang Zheng rubbed his brow. He had to admit, the other side understood human psychology very well.

Many people wanted things for free, yet did not quite trust anything that was free. But once they had paid and borne a cost, they would believe far more readily.

Still, Jiang Zheng did not want to pay that money.

For the time being, he could not tell who the scammer was.

This would have to be done slowly; hot tofu could not be eaten in haste.

Then he sent another message: “How many days before I can earn back the fee? That’s too slow. And once school starts, I won’t have so much time to do paid orders. Does that mean I won’t be able to make much each day?”

“In the beginning, we’ll try our best to arrange some high-commission orders for you so you can recover your costs as quickly as possible. Later, even after school starts, you can use your free time to do a few. Not to say much, but earning enough for meals will still be possible.”

The replies were nearly all the same, but that was not the answer Jiang Zheng wanted.

Finally, a reply came from the last one, whose name was Dreaming Awakens and Sleeves Are Wet with Tears.

“We often have high-commission orders. Making a dozen or twenty yuan per order is easy, so you don’t need to worry about recouping your costs or not making money. And we also have a membership system here. If you perform well and become a member, you can even earn money every day without lifting a finger.”

Seeing this message, Jiang Zheng’s spirit jolted.

It was you!

He had finally found these scammers. He knew very well that Yang Po had been cheated out of money by that so-called membership.