Russia's Central Bank issued a pyramid fraud warning against AI Robots on August 20, 2024, weeks before the crypto scheme collapsed in October. The platform, which promised daily returns for simple button clicks, never disclosed its operators, a critical red flag for investors.
The AI Robots operation ran across three distinct web domains. Two, ai-robots.cc and ai-robots.vip, were registered privately on July 24, 2024. A third, airobot888.com, appeared on August 7, using fabricated registration details. This third domain was traced to Alibaba (Singapore), a registrar based in China.
AI Robots offered no genuine product or service. Its entire proposition rested on membership sales, funded by new capital. Users invested Tether (USDT), a stablecoin, with promises of daily returns that scaled according to their initial deposit. These payouts were not tied to any external revenue generation or legitimate business activity.
The investment tiers ranged from VIP1 to VIP10. A VIP1 member, investing 12 USDT, was promised a 16% daily return. At the highest tier, VIP10, an investment of 120,000 USDT supposedly yielded 25% daily. These upper-tier promises amounted to stratospheric returns on six-figure sums.
Participants were instructed to log in daily and click a button. This action, a mere theatrical gesture, supposedly qualified them for their daily payout. The button performed no actual function; it was an illusion of activity designed to mask the lack of a real business model.
The scheme also paid recruitment commissions across three levels of affiliates. Individuals directly recruited by a user (level 1) generated 14% of their investment as commission for the recruiter. Level 2 recruits contributed 2%, and level 3 recruits added 1%.
An additional downline investment bonus paid out based on the collective investment volume of a user's downline within a 24-hour window. Generating 800 USDT in downline investment earned a bonus of 18 USDT. A downline investment volume reaching 100,000 USDT resulted in a 12,888 USDT bonus. This commission structure is typical for such schemes, engineered to aggressively incentivize rapid recruitment.
Signing up for AI Robots was free, but active participation required a minimum investment of 12 USDT. The platform generated zero external revenue. The "tasks" completed by clicking a button created no value. All payouts to earlier investors came directly from funds deposited by newer investors. This model precisely defines a Ponzi scheme.
Since 2021, ScamTelegraph has documented hundreds of similar "click a button" application-based Ponzi schemes. Examples include AKK USDT, Nadec VIP, and Primark Mall. These operations all collapsed, employing the same task-based ruse. Most of these schemes operate for a few weeks or months before their operators abruptly disappear. Websites go dark, apps cease to function, and the majority of investors lose their funds. This outcome is not an error in the system; it is inherent to the mathematics of a Ponzi scheme.
A consistent group of Chinese scammers is believed to be behind this widespread series of fraudulent platforms. AI Robots ultimately collapsed on October 25, 2024. All associated websites became inaccessible, leaving investors unable to retrieve their funds.