A man was sentenced to 7 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining $1757 from a friend through a virtual currency "airdrop project" According to BlockBeats, on August 13th, a man in Anshun, Guizhou used the name of a virtual currency "airdrop project" to lure his friends into investing with guaranteed high rebates, ultimately crossing the legal red line. After being prosecuted by the Pingba District Procuratorate of Anshun City, Guizhou Province, Zhao was sentenced to seven months in prison and fined 5000 yuan for fraud. Zhao has been following the field of virtual currency investment for a long time and has been posting investment insights, financial tips, and other content on social media platforms. Zhang is also a virtual currency enthusiast. The two met on a social media platform due to common interests and gradually became friends, often exchanging investment strategies online. Through long-term communication and interaction, Zhao gradually gained Zhang's trust with his seemingly professional investment analysis. Subsequently, Zhao proposed joint investment, and Zhang agreed. However, after investing for a period of time, Zhang suffered serious losses and proposed not to continue investing. On August 23, 2025, Zhao claimed that an app had launched an "airdrop project" (to promote new projects, incentivize user participation, or reward loyal users, distributing native tokens of the project to eligible users for free), persuading Zhang to invest the remaining funds in the project and promising a rebate of 100 to 200 U coins (virtual currency) within two days. Zhao also guarantees that if any losses occur during this period, he will bear them. To further dispel Zhang's concerns, Zhao claimed that all investment funds would be transferred to the "public chain" (virtual currency public chain address). Zhang believed it to be true and exchanged the 1757 US dollars in his account for Ethereum, and completed the transfer according to the wallet link provided by Zhao. In fact, the wallet corresponding to this link is a personal account registered by Zhao using his girlfriend's identity information, not a "public chain". The agreed time for returning the money has passed, but Zhao has not fulfilled his promise for a long time. Zhang has repeatedly urged for repayment, but Zhao has declined citing reasons such as "forwarding the wrong link and needing time to track". On September 7th of the same year, Zhang reported an abnormality to the police. On April 2nd of this year, the Pingba District Procuratorate prosecuted Zhao on suspicion of fraud. The procuratorial organ believes that Zhao used the means of concealing the truth to defraud others of property, with a large amount, and his behavior constitutes the crime of fraud. Considering that Zhao truthfully confessed to the criminal facts upon his arrival at the case, with a candid nature, and has fully compensated the victim for their losses and voluntarily admitted guilt and punishment, he may be given lenient punishment in accordance with the law. [Original link]