By Yan Shuang

A man was sent to jail by the Haidian district court in early June for operating an online pyramid sales scam that took advantage of over 1,000 university students in Beijing.

According to a report in the Legal Mirror Sunday, Che Shoufeng, 36, registered on a Singapore website named xinzhiwang.com in 2004, which claimed to be a training service site offering registered members commissions to get others to join.

Che thought it was a good way to make money, so in 2006 he started doing business in Beijing, telling university students that the website could train them in investing, financing and business start-ups if they paid a 1,230 yuan ($181) membership fee for one year. He also lured them with promises of commissions and even houses, cars and shares of stock in the company that owned the website.

The report said Che made over 80,000 yuan ($11,769) in four years, cheating 1,259 university students. In 2007, a member reported the scheme to police, and in early June this year, the Haidian district court sentenced Che to four years in prison and fined him 10,000 yuan ($1,471).

Reportedly, students from over 10 universities were involved, most from the University of International Business and Economics and China Agriculture University. However, a media department representative of the latter told the Global Times, "I didn't know about this until I read the newspaper... We're looking into it."

According to the Legal Mirror report, a student at that university was dismissed because he was found introducing this website to other classmates. But the representative said, "We didn't dismiss any student because of this."

Song Yunfeng, a lawyer in Beijing told the Global Times that such scams "take advantage of students who are innocent and eager for success in their career."

Reportedly shut down according to the Beijing News, xinzhiwang.com actually is still online.