DOZENS of investors have claimed that they were swindled by an investment platform called Dongshun Capital, after they lost contact with the company Friday, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

On Friday, a woman surnamed Lu in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province transferred 10,000 yuan (US$1,518) to an investment platform called Dongshun Capital. Before long, the platform could not be logged into. Customer service would not answer, and the various functions on the WeChat account could not be used. According to Lu, she began to invest on the platform in the beginning of August. So far, she and several of her friends have invested about 100,000 yuan.

It has been found that the number of investors similar to Lu is not small. Some have invested thousands of yuan, while others have invested more than 100,000 yuan. These investors, originally unknown to each other, formed a WeChat group through different contacts. At present, the group’s membership has exceeded 80 people, among which investors of Dongshun Capital account for the majority, with others joining from other investment platforms.

Most of the investors in Dongshun Capital had first heard about the platform on the Internet and started by investing a small sum of money. After they earned a small profit, they decided to increase the amount of their investment.

Similar to Lu, a woman identified as Pan in Bengbu City, Anhui Province also started investing on the platform in the beginning of August. She saw an article about the platform on a WeChat account, and the “high-profit, safe and secure” investment projects described in the article quickly attracted her attention.

Pan said that she did not immediately throw money into the platform, but did a little research on the Internet before giving it a try with some “small money.” Pan added that what really made her believe in the platform was an investment of 30,000 yuan Aug. 16. “The money I invested Aug. 16 was repaid in full with interest three days later. The proceeds were over 4,300 yuan,” Pan said.

According to investors, Dongshun Capital investment platform provided more than 100 investment projects. Different investment projects had different daily interest rates, investment periods, and initial investment amounts.

The platform’s APP, website and WeChat account have not been available since Friday. Investors have been trying to call customer service, but to no avail. (Zhang Yu)