Bamboozled! Beijing Parents Scammed by Fake Writing Contest

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In the professional writing world, you’re taught to be wary of writing contests or submissions that require an entry fee. Some people simply don’t apply at all, while others don’t have the means to shell out anywhere from RMB 30 to RMB 100 for every contest. A few might capitulate for certain dream publications.

But these are professionals – or at least adults working towards becoming professionals – making their decisions. When the situation involves your children and their future international school or university applications, the idea of what’s appropriate to pay might be different. CCTV recently uncovered how training centers and a fake version of the esteemed Ye Shengtao Cup writing prize scammed parents in Beijing out of anywhere from RMB 12,000 to RMB 15,000 per child.

This wasn’t just an entrance fee, however. Parents were apparently paying for their children to receive prizes, according to a report on caixingglobal.com. So if you know anyone who claims their child won one of the esteemed middle school writing competition prizes, check that it didn’t come from Beijing Shengtao Wenrun Education and Culture Co. Ltd, which has seemingly been in cahoots with training and learning centers across Beijing since 2016. The website for the Ye Shengtao Cup has added a statement clarifying that “the Ye Shengtao Cup has no participation fee, nor does it conduct paid training classes or marketing activities.”

Ye Shengtao was a prolific Chinese writer known for his short stories about the lives of working people and intellectuals, as well as his children’s literature. In 1987, a selection of his short stories was translated into English and titled How Mr. Pan Weathered the Storm.

Although it’s hard to know whether or not the parents scammed by the fake prize understood that it was illegitimate, this certainly serves as a cautionary tale for anyone paying for their kids to receive a prize. Check that you are getting the real deal, even if your training center assures you that you are.

Images: Unsplash

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