Stay away from any "invest for your retirement" scheme that asks an older person to pay first: cards, beds, retirement apartments, travel-retirement and senior products are all the same illegal fund-raising

Cost

Free. Read the names below to the older person once, a few minutes. When you run into one later, refuse right away: don't attend the lecture, don't visit, don't leave a phone number. The hard part is that if the older person has already been a few times and become friendly with the people, it is not easy to talk them back.

What you get

The Ministry of Civil Affairs (民政部) lists 5 forms, and recognizing the pretext is more reliable than recognizing the people. First, pretending to be an eldercare service provider: no physical operation, a rented place for a short time, claiming to have signed cooperation agreements with eldercare institutions in order to piggyback on them. Second, under the name of providing "eldercare services": selling "VIP cards," "membership cards" and "prepaid cards" that make people prepay "eldercare service fees," promising services that clearly exceed their own bed capacity. Third, under the name of investing in "eldercare projects." Common pretexts include buying shares in a wellness and eldercare base, and selling made-up retirement apartments. There are also long-term rentals of eldercare beds and "time bank" mutual-aid eldercare. The cover stories are selling with a refund of the principal, leaseback after sale, and an agreed buyback. Fourth, under the name of selling "senior products": buyback of goods, consignment, cash back on spending, free checkups, free gifts, conference marketing, wellness lectures, and free consultations by "experts." Fifth, under the name of enjoying "travel retirement": cheap or free trips, cash back on stored value, and points for eldercare. The regulations say plainly that the money cannot be recovered. Article 25 of the Regulations on the Prevention and Handling of Illegal Fund-raising (防范和处置非法集资条例) provides that "losses suffered from taking part in illegal fund-raising are borne by the participants themselves," so lost money is yours to bear. In an officially reported case, Dai (戴某平) and others raised 136,000,000 yuan (1.36亿) illegally in the name of reserving retirement-apartment beds, with more than 2,100 victims, and Dai was sentenced to 15 years for the crime of fraud by illegal fund-raising and fined 400,000 yuan (40万). Cao (曹某铭) committed fund-raising fraud of 13,207,000,000 yuan (132.07亿) in the name of investing in the eldercare industry, involving more than 110,000 people (11万余), and was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property. Selling health products through meetings is prosecuted as fraud. Ni (倪某荣) pulled older people in to attend lectures with free banquets, free gifts and chauffeured rides. The lecturer made up cancer-prevention and cancer-fighting effects with "fake personas, fake cases and fake high prices that are then bargained down." Older people were lured into paying tens of times the cost price for "dihydroquercetin." Sales came to more than 620,000 yuan (62万余). Ni was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months and fined 120,000 yuan (12万) (nationwide; the regulations took effect May 1, 2021).

Notes

The judgment does not rest on "this one looks legitimate" but on "did it ask you to pay first, did it promise a return." An eldercare institution is supposed to sell services, so once the talk brings in investment, cash back or getting your money back, don't believe it. Being pulled into lectures, trips and free consultations is not illegal in itself and is also hard to stop. What you can stop is the moment of paying, and the two-person confirmation rule in §17.3 works together with that. If money has already been paid, follow §8.2 right away and call 110 (the police) or 96110 (China's anti-fraud hotline) to ask for the payment to be stopped, and also report to the local department that leads the handling of illegal fund-raising. Living off your home is a different path; see §17.6 (reverse-mortgage eldercare insurance on a home).

Evidence grade

A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.

Sources

1. 民政部 (2023). 关于养老服务领域非法集资的风险提示. https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202306/content_6886556.htm（中国政府网发布）
2. 民政部、中国银保监会 (2021). 关于养老领域非法集资的风险提示. https://www.mca.gov.cn/n152/n164/c36171/content.html
3. 国务院 (2021). 防范和处置非法集资条例（国务院令第 737 号，第二、二十五、三十条）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-02/10/content_5586632.htm
4. 最高人民检察院 (2022). 检察机关打击整治养老诈骗犯罪典型案例. https://www.spp.gov.cn/xwfbh/wsfbt/202206/t20220617_560010.shtml
5. 最高人民法院 (2025). 依法惩治涉民生领域诈骗犯罪典型案例（案例五 倪某荣诈骗案）. https://www.court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/482861.html

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 17, tip 5. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer