China's State Administration of Financial Regulation and four agencies issue risk warning on illegal agency rights protection short-video and livestream scams

China’s State Administration of Financial Regulation, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the People’s Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, issued a joint risk warning on illegal short videos and livestreams that induce financial consumers and investors to use paid “agency rights protection” services by promising outcomes such as full insurance surrender, debt clearance or investment-advisory fee refunds. The agencies highlighted recurring tactics including fabricated claims of new regulatory policies, misquoting or misinterpreting financial rules and using regulators’ imagery; false assertions that financial institutions have opened channels for “full surrender”, deferred repayment or debt write-offs; and marketing under the guise of “professional lawyers” or law firms that teach “rights protection skills”, pressure institutions and may incite or assist users to provide false materials. The warning stressed that claims such as “full surrender”, “loans/credit cards do not need to be repaid”, “debt replacement”, “credit laundering” and “full refund of investment advisory fees” are inconsistent with laws including the Insurance Law, Commercial Banking Law, Securities Law and the rules governing the credit reporting industry, and flagged risks including high fees, potential contract disputes and harvesting of sensitive personal information. Consumers and investors are urged to resolve disputes through official channels published by financial institutions or financial regulators, or via professional mediation, litigation or arbitration, and to report suspect short-video and livestream content to the relevant platform and to financial supervision, cyberspace and public security authorities.