Chapter 359 I think you look like a liar
In 1985, the village bank appeared. It was originally intended to help businesses with capital turnover and played the role of a village bank.
Soon, the club spread to areas with active private economy, with interest rates rising and the amount of club membership increasing, from 10,000 yuan to 100,000, 500,000, and 1 million yuan. Members recruited other members to earn the interest rate difference, developed downlines, and continued to spread.
In the 1980s, when pork cost only a few cents per pound and households with a monthly income of 10,000 yuan were still rare, a carpenter named Li Qifeng was the first to set up a lifting association. He actually recruited more than 10,000 members, with membership fees of up to 120 million yuan and an annual income of 19 million yuan. There was also a semi-illiterate housewife named Zheng Lefen, who actually collected more than 60 million yuan in membership fees and put large bundles of banknotes into her basket.
There are 1,342 associations of all sizes in a certain county. In some villages, almost every family has joined an association. There are more than 200,000 members in all counties and districts, even as far away as the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang regions.
At that time, the largest denomination of banknote was still ten yuan, and membership fees were collected directly by weighing the scale. The total amount of funds was as high as 2.2 billion yuan.
During the craziest stage, the annualized interest rate was generally close to one thousand percent.
What kind of business can have such high returns?
Obviously most of them are idling.
In international jargon, this scheme is called a Ponzi scheme.
The localized name is called "Taihui".
However, the scam is destined not to last long. The higher the interest rate, the faster it will collapse.
Therefore, after the Spring Festival in 1986, everyone rushed to use their money, and the capital chain of the association was in trouble. Everyone was in a panic. In the second half of the year, violent debt collection incidents were on the verge of getting out of control. Students did not dare to go out to class for fear of being kidnapped. Some people gave gifts to get in through the back door, just to be thrown into a cell to avoid the limelight, while most people could only wait for the storm to come.
In the fall, things finally broke out.
Eighty thousand families went bankrupt, schools were closed, factories stopped production, shops closed...social order was on the verge of collapse.
The follow-up handling of the entire Taihui Rebellion was not basically completed until 1992.
As Lu Yiming described the story, Li Quanwang got goose bumps all over his body. He couldn't help but look at his fingers, imagining the toothpick inserted between the nail and the flesh... He felt a chill.
"Alright, alright, stop talking. If you keep talking, I won't be able to eat today. This is too scary..."
Lu Yiming said with a firm look, "Resist the temptation of high interest rates consciously, and believe that there is no free lunch in the world. If someone gives you benefits without any relationship, it must be because they can take greater benefits from you. You have no worries about food and clothing now, and I don't ask you to make any achievements, but you must avoid being greedy. As long as you don't take advantage of small gains, I can let you live a life of luxury with me. But if you are greedy..."
"No, no, absolutely not. It's too scary. I'd rather just stay in my villa and drive my luxury car. By the way, the bodyguard and driver you assigned to me is really awesome."
Li Quanwang shook his head like a rattle . He could never imagine that just a few years ago, such a hell on earth thing would happen.
He was a very, very ordinary person, a timid and cowardly student who muddled through life. He became a millionaire by following Lu Yiming, but he still knew nothing about the outside world. After being frightened by Lu Yiming, he almost lost his courage.
Seeing that Li Quanwang was frightened by him, Lu Yiming smiled and said to Li Quanwang, "It seems that I haven't been to the Internet cafe for a while. Let's go to the Internet cafe after school at noon."
"OK."
After school at noon, the two came to Store No. 1. The spectacular scene of being crowded with people before was no longer there, and the machines were no longer full.
The late 1990s to the early 21st century was the peak period for the Internet cafe boom. In the past decade, as long as you don't do stupid things, you can make money. In just a few years, the Internet cafe industry has created countless millionaires and multimillionaires.
But this wave of troubles came and went quickly. Tongxin Internet Cafe has only been open for half a year, but the situation is already not as good as before. This is the situation of a chain Internet cafe like Tongxin Internet Cafe, which has hundreds of computers. If the situation is like this, you can imagine the situation of small Internet cafes in corners.
This wave of Internet cafes made money on a daily basis. The price dropped from 10 to 20 yuan an hour at the beginning of the year to 5 or 6 yuan later. This was due to the price reduction of computer hardware and the popularization of the Internet. By 2002 and 2003, the Internet fee had basically dropped to 50 cents an hour.
However, as a large number of Internet cafes disappeared, high-end Internet cafes experienced a period of glory again, with the price of 20 yuan an hour and still being crowded.
Of course, this is all in the past.
Li Quanwang came to the store and saw that the Internet cafe was empty, and he felt very sad.
After all, he owns 10% of the shares of the Internet cafe. If fewer people come to surf the Internet, the money he gets will naturally be less.
The two walked around the Internet cafe, and Lu Yiming found that several computers were broken, so he had to ask the employees to dismantle the computers and he would repair them.
Li Quanwang leisurely took out a bottle of Sprite from the freezer, feeling cool and happy while pointing and talking beside him.
Just at this moment, Gu Zhiruo and Lin Yuzhen walked into the Internet cafe.
Although Lu Yiming's previous computer is still in Zhu Hanwen's house and Lin Yuzhen can use it at any time, Lin Yuzhen is really traumatized by the last Internet fee. In addition, the Internet fee in Internet cafes has been reduced a lot now, so she will go to the Internet cafe whenever she needs to go online.
When Li Quanwang saw Gu Zhiruo, he immediately stopped caring about talking to Lu Yiming and ran up to the two of them excitedly and said to Gu Zhiruo, "Gu Zhiruo, you're here to surf the Internet? Where do you want to sit? I'll help you turn on the computer."
Seeing Li Quanwang flattering him like this, Lu Yiming shook his head helplessly.
"Forget your friends when you see a beautiful woman."
The computer was repaired quickly. Lu Yiming went to the bathroom to wash his hands, then took a bottle of ice cola from the refrigerator, sat at the counter and began to check the operation of the Internet cafe.
At this moment, a woman who looked familiar walked in. She came directly to the counter, slapped the table, and asked, "Where is your CEO Li?"
Lu Yiming was stunned: "Which Mr. Li?"
"Li Quanwang, how many Mr. Lis are there in Tongxin Internet Cafe?"
Looking for Li Quanwang?
Lu Yiming remembered what Li Quanwang had told him this morning about the meeting, and couldn't help but be more cautious, and asked, "Why are you looking for him?"
The woman looked at Lu Yiming unhappily, slammed the table and yelled, "Why are you such a stinky worker? I'm here to see your CEO Li. I'm his fourth aunt. If you don't go get him, I'll have him fire you, believe it or not?"
Lu Yiming then remembered, no wonder this person looked familiar, wasn't this Tian Jiahong who Li Quanwang went to borrow money for last time when his villa caught fire?
"Good fellow, you want Wangzai to fire me? Give him three guts and see. You are here to find Li Quanwang now, is it because of money?"
Tian Jiahong was slightly stunned, and looked at Lu Yiming suspiciously: "How do you know?"
It had been quite some time since the last fire in the villa, and Tian Jiahong was only interested in getting money from Li Quanwang at the time. Even though she had had some verbal communication with Lu Yiming, she had already forgotten about him.
Lu Yiming did not intend to answer Tian Jiahong's question, but said to himself: "If you come to talk to Wangzai about money, then you can leave. He won't pay a penny. Xiaojin, kick this person out."
"Okay boss."
Seeing that Lu Yiming was about to drive people away, Tian Jiahong immediately refused to do it and shouted, "Li Quanwang, come out..."
Li Quanwang was helping Gu Zhiruo turn on her computer at the other end of the internet cafe. He also turned on the computer next to her, intending to play with her. Suddenly, he heard Tian Jiahong's voice. He was startled and ran over to ask in frustration, "What are you doing?"
Tian Jiahong pointed at Lu Yiming and said to Li Quanwang angrily, "I came here to find you, but this stinky worker not only didn't serve me well, but also kicked me out. This is simply unreasonable. Fire him. I get angry just looking at him now!"
Li Quanwang looked at Lu Yiming in confusion.
Lu Yiming shrugged at Li Quanwang.
Li Quanwang said with a smile: "He is not some lousy worker. He is the founder and major shareholder of Tongxin Internet Cafe. He is much more powerful than me. Only he can fire me. Okay, aunt, you came to me for investment, right? Tongxin Internet Cafe is expanding now, and I have invested all my money. Now I don't have a penny left, so I can't invest anymore."
Tian Jiahong glanced at Lu Yiming and indeed felt like she had seen this guy somewhere before. However, she had been so busy running the Internet cafe for the past six months that she couldn't remember where she had seen Lu Yiming, so she could only ignore him.
"Wangzai, what are you talking about? I don't want much, just one million. If I put the money in the mutual aid association, I can get 60% interest a year. What business can be more profitable than this?"
Lu Yiming stood aside and sneered, "Forget it. Sixty percent interest a year? Are you kidding me? Are you treating us like fools? Haven't you seen a Ponzi scheme?"
Tian Jiahong was furious: "What Ponzi scheme, what Li scheme? We are raising funds for a serious business. If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Otherwise, you will be held legally responsible."
Wow, those who engage in illegal fund-raising ask others not to talk nonsense, and they still bear legal responsibility?
Who should bear the legal responsibility?
Looking at Tian Jiahong who was somewhat hysterical, Lu Yiming finally understood what it meant that ignorance is fearless.
Li Quanwang had already been frightened by Lu Yiming's advice, so he naturally refused to give in to Tian Jiahong. No matter what Tian Jiahong said, he just said that the money had been invested and he had no money left.
Tian Jiahong's mouth was dry after talking so much that she really had no words to say. Seeing Li Quanwang, she was like a turtle that had eaten a weight. Although she was unwilling, she could only leave cursing.
When Tian Jiahong left, Gu Zhiruo and Lin Yuzhen had finished surfing the Internet. They came to the front desk, and Lin Yuzhen asked curiously, "Who was that person just now? One moment she was my aunt, and the next she was an investor. This is too lively."
Li Quanwang sighed. He didn't want to make the family's dirty laundry known to others, but Tian Jiahong kept yelling and screaming, as if she was afraid that others didn't know about it. This made him feel helpless.
Lu Yiming said to the two, "That was Wangzai's aunt just now. She wanted Wangzai to invest his hard-earned money. It was actually illegal fundraising. If I hadn't discovered it early, Wangzai would have been cheated. By the way, you two should also be wary of the temptation of high interest rates and don't trust any investment casually."
He told them the history of the meeting.
Gu Zhiruo said indignantly: "What kind of person is this? He even cheated his nephew of his money. This is too shameless!"
Lin Yuzhen asked curiously, "How do they make money when the interest rate is so high?"
Lu Yiming said: "They don't even think about making money. You are eyeing his interest, but they are eyeing your principal."
Gu Zhiruo curled her lips and said disapprovingly: "Such a stupid thing, no one with a normal mind would be fooled, right?"
Lu Yiming said: "If you are not greedy, you will not be deceived, but if you are greedy, you will definitely fall into the trap. In the early stage, in order to attract more people to join the club, the club owners will generally act very generous and give high interest returns. When you believe it and invest money in it, you have actually fallen into the trap."
This is actually the basic routine of a Ponzi scheme. The money used to pay the interest is actually the principal of the deceived person. As long as enough people join in, the fund pool of the association will continue to expand and there will be enough money to pay the interest.
But any scam has a limit. Once the scam can no longer be sustained, it will collapse immediately, and then no one will be able to get their money back.
Lu Yiming explained to the two of them the operating principle, which immediately scared them.
Illegal fund-raising was rampant throughout the 1990s.
For example, if Lu Yiming's previous recharge reward refund operation was put on hold more than ten years later, he would definitely be sent to jail.
But he can do it now. As long as he can pay back the money in the end, no one can cause trouble for him.
But most of the private fundraising methods are much more outrageous than his, and they are not just walking on the edge of the law, but are actually trampling on the law.
For example, in the "Yi Li Shen" case around 2002, the Yi Li Shen Group used the so-called ant farming routine to defraud 1.2 million farmers. The amount involved in the case exceeded 20 billion yuan, and they also invited Zhao Heitu to publicize it.
In the southeastern coastal areas, due to the developed commerce, private capital is even more active. Private organizations like the Lingdong Mutual Aid Association are almost countless.
However, no matter how many times it changes, the core is still the same fund operation model that was originally used to raise funds.
Lin Yuzhen asked: "You make this story sound so terrible, are you saying that everyone is a liar? Is there no one who is reliable?"
Lu Yiming said, "Of course there is. The Future Fund I opened has an annual interest rate of 10%, and the principal is guaranteed. Do you want to invest a little? The minimum investment is 100,000, and you will earn money if you buy it."
“… …”
"You look like a liar to me."
