“If you can get rich by taking a few days of investment and financial management courses, people in our company don’t have to go to work.” Xiao Wang (a pseudonym) said in an interview with a reporter from China Securities Journal. Previously, he was a practitioner in the financial intelligence education industry.
Before an interview with reporters, Xiao Wang had bought a ticket back to his hometown in southern Anhui. “Basically, all the money he made in Beijing in recent years has been lost.” Xiao Wang smiled helplessly. “I don’t want to enter this kind of industry again in the future. I want to find a job in my hometown.”
Xiao Wang admitted that there is no shortcut to make money quickly, and it is impossible to realize wealth freedom through financial management courses.
Dozens of words
At present, there are many financial intelligence education institutions in the market, with the advertising slogan of “0 foundation to quickly realize 500000 wealth accumulation” and “1 yuan can realize wealth freedom”, using 12 yuan, 9.9 yuan or even free short-term “Xiaobai financial management courses” as bait to attract a large number of people with financial management learning needs, and further marketing students to buy advanced courses and advanced courses with prices ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.
Xiao Wang previously worked as a customer service and “head teacher” in his financial and business education institution. “In fact, they are all sales.” “It’s all about selling classes and making achievements, but different posts and commissions,” Wang said
Turning to the problem of “courses inconsistent with publicity, but no refund” which is the most complained by students in the industry, Xiao Wang said that it is difficult to refund tuition fees. If students have a refund, marketers have to deduct money. In order to deal with these problems, the company has designed the marketing script in advance, “for example, we usually convince the students who want to refund the fee in the middle of the course to finish the later courses and tell them that they can apply for a refund if they don’t think it is appropriate. However, after the students finish the course, we will say that the course progress has been completed 100% and the fee can’t be refunded according to the contract.”
He told reporters that when students sign the contract, they will continue to urge, so few students carefully read the contract details and ask questions.
Xiao Wang revealed to reporters that there are many such scripts, which are recorded in the script book. They are called “brainwashing artifact”. For all kinds of questions that students will ask, all kinds of situations encountered in the marketing process, and even all kinds of reactions of students, we can find the coping strategies and response contents in the script book, and there are dozens of such books in the company. “Commonly used scripts usually exist in mobile phones. When you use them, just copy and paste them directly. They can basically fool you.”
In addition to the script, the “cooperation” between colleagues in the group is also a routine operation to promote customers to place orders. Xiao Wang and his colleagues punch in and out of each other’s groups, bask in profits and take rhythm.
However, Xiao Wang also told reporters that the success rate of advanced course marketing is not very high. “The main reason is that the price is high and there are not many buyers. However, due to the large number of customers we receive every day and the large overall base, even if the conversion rate is not high, the number of buyers is not small.”
In response to the above problems exposed by Xiao Wang, the reporter called the customer service of his previous organization. The staff member said, “after asking the leader, we will reply.” However, as of press time, the reporter has not received any response, and this call is no longer answered.
provide guidance for securities companies in the form of “welfare”
During the investigation, many students reported to reporters that they were persuaded by the “head teacher” to open a securities account. Insiders told reporters that opening accounts for securities companies is one of the income generating channels of many financial and business education institutions. In order to complete the assessment of effective households (customers with annual average daily assets of more than 10000), securities companies will seek cooperation with financial and business education institutions, with a pre Tax Commission of 4 Guangdong Advertising Group Co.Ltd(002400) yuan.
Financial institutions often conduct diversion in the form of “job welfare”. Students who have completed their homework for many days in a row can enter a brokerage platform from the exclusive link provided by the teacher to open an account. The welfare is that they can enjoy ultra-low Commission, and the requirement is that the capital is more than 10000 yuan.
Some students said that the teacher would use “insider information of practitioners” as a gimmick to recommend specific stocks and funds, teach students how to buy virtual currency, and sometimes recommend Internet small and micro loans, insurance and other products.
In this regard, Dong ximiao, chief researcher of Zhaolian finance, said that according to the regulations, no institution or individual shall provide services for securities trading and related activities without approval. Most financial and business education institutions have not been approved by the CSRC, and relevant personnel have not obtained securities qualification. Therefore, it is illegal for them to engage in activities such as recommending stocks.
In addition to recommending stocks and other illegal operations, many consumers questioned their professional standards and qualifications.
Xiaoyue (a pseudonym), who signed up for the advanced course of WeiMiao business school in early March this year, said that she had repeatedly asked many teachers about a simple knowledge point, but the answers given by these teachers were diverse. Xiaoyue’s request for a refund was rejected, and the response of the customer service staff made her more angry. “The customer service said that it was normal for the teacher to make mistakes, so I should help the teacher correct them more. I came to study because of my weak foundation, and I had to correct these low-level mistakes for them.”
Also feel unworthy is Xiao Li (a pseudonym), “I’m an old student. I don’t fall behind in almost every class and take notes carefully, but I still have no clue about financial management and investment. These courses are OK if I want to learn some knowledge, but they are not practical and useless for making money quickly.”
Xiao Wang said that many teachers of advanced courses are not investment experts claimed by the platform. “Some teachers take up their posts after training for a few days, and some are laid-off personnel in the education and training industry. They may not have been in contact with financial management before, let alone have professional qualifications.”
strengthen the top-level design of the industry and improve the awareness of prevention
According to the latest data disclosed on the official website of China Clearing, as of February 25, 2022, the number of investors in China’s securities market has exceeded the 200 million mark. According to the survey report on the status of individual investors previously released by Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the average asset size of investors’ securities accounts has risen to 606000 yuan in 2021.
Insiders said that with the improvement of per capita income level, the public’s awareness of investment and financial management has been awakened rapidly. Many people hope to quickly improve their ability of investment and financial management through training and learning, so as to obtain more income beyond wages, and even desire to realize wealth freedom. Therefore, financial intelligence education came into being.
However, the industry is currently mixed and chaotic. Insiders said that some institutions incite anxiety, induce consumers to buy high-priced courses, professional teachers do not have professional qualifications, and even disrupt the financial market by illegally recommending stocks and marketing financial products. After these companies are exposed by the media or named by regulators, they often change their names and continue to operate.
The reason is that at present, the industry mainly has the problems of no threshold, no qualification and no supervision.
At the two sessions of the National People’s Congress in 2022, Xu Guoquan, deputy to the National People’s Congress, proposed to speed up the top-level design and industry standard formulation of financial and business education supervision, and guide financial and business education on the road of standardized development through threshold, qualification and supervision.
Insiders suggested that, on the one hand, we should establish and improve the laws, regulations, systems and policy system of financial and business education, strengthen the top-level design of financial and business education supervision, build a dynamic and timely multi sectoral coordination and supervision framework, and strengthen industry self-discipline supervision. On the other hand, to enhance the public welfare of financial quotient education, we can explore its incorporation into the national education system and carry out public welfare financial quotient education popularization activities.
In addition, many experts reminded consumers to establish a correct view of financial management, strengthen the ability of independent thinking and judgment, identify risks, enhance prevention awareness, and learn financial management and investment knowledge through formal channels and platforms.
