Scam Tactics: Using Cultural Preconceptions and Stereotypes for Affinity Scam

As the Gemcoin scam reached national stage, a video surfaced recently of Steve Chen and company throwing some sort of USFIA Club party at a McMansion owned by one of his real estate companies (AHome) ostensibly as some sort of reward for "top performing" USFIA participants.

During the event, Steve Chen was wearing a light blue polo with some sort of a badge on left breast, a photo badge clipped on the right breast, and was wearing a gunbelt with holster (and gun), with some sort of shield/badge on the belt in public display. The caption identified him as chairman, USFIA club.  (lit: US Royal Club)

Vidcap from video, red caption by Oz, BehindMLM.com
white caption says: USFIA Club Chairman

A later picture shows the gun and the rest, belt shield, shoulder patch, and photo ID badge and its close-up, where it clearly says: GREAT WALL, photo, badge, name, number, date, and "Public Safety".

Photo of Steve Chen cutting ribbon of his own place, close up of badge
brown and green markup by Oz, behindmlm.com,
Steve Chen is obviously dressed as security guard, ID'ed so by badge

Search of LA Area for "Great Wall" yielded a company called Great Wall Security Training Center, in San Gabriel, CA, not far from Arcadia.

Great Wall Security Training Center banner from their own website

Where, as you can guess, they train security guards, including armed guards, gun permits, pepper spray permits, billy club permits, body guard permit, concealed carry permit, and other related stuff.

Why did a chairman demote himself to security guard just to carry a gun around? On a grand-opening ceremony of his own club? For that, you have to understand Chinese culture.




China prohibits private ownership of guns. Guns can only be held by military, paramilitary, law enforcement, and security organizations, and a few sporting and research organizations. Thus, any one holding a gun is assumed to be in a position of power, either authorized by law, or so powerful law looks the other way.

Chinese who moved to the US may read and understand 2nd amendment, about "right to bear arms", but they don't quite realize it to the point of taken it to heart. They hear, but they don't fully comprehend how EASY it is to obtain a gun permit in the US. And Steve Chen used this preconception GUN=POWER to his advantage.  By wearing a gun, he is counting on Chinese to assume he is in a position of power, and ignore the fact that he can only wear the gun as a security guard (for his own place).

Thus is the power of cognitive dissonance. And that's hardly the only time Steve Chen played fast and loose with the facts. The so-called 9 facts statement is hilarious in that it basically denied reality and relied on word games (it's not USFIA, it's one of the OTHER Steve Chen companies).

The hilarious part is how we got the full name of John Bao Ping Zhang, body guard / security guard / gem appraiser. Yes, one of those professions doesn't fit. Yet that's exactly how he was presented to the public in January 2015 in Toronto USFIA sales event. They didn't even bother giving him a pseudonym.

Screencap of Toronto event as covered by local media in January 2015

But really, how do you know a guy's a gemstone appraiser... or a security guard? If you dress up a guard in a fancy suit, and told everybody he's a gem appraiser, people will believe you... Until you see pictures of the SAME GUY in security uniform, like this:

Screencap of ChineseDailyUSA.com coverage of May 2015 promo event
where Steve Chen hired a bus and formed a motorcade to visit his own closed
golf course for some cheerleading and target practice

I'm sure everybody's heard of the joke about the driver and the professor.

That's why Steve Chen have to keep tight with John Wuo, ex-mayor of Arcadia. In China, a mayor is a major post. In fact, even the city secretary (mayor's chief of staff) is a very important post, because he handles all the paperwork, and can help or ruin anybody should he prove to be corrupt. That's why Steve Chen kept tight with Wuo... Wuo was being used... with his own permission. Chinese idiom is "one eye open, one eye closed". American equivalent is "turn a blind eye", and the legal term is "willful ignorance", i.e. I don't know the details and I don't want to know.

Don't believe everything you see with your own eyes. Your preconceptions, cultural or otherwise, may cloud your thinking.

Related articles

• USFIA update: Who is Leonard S. Johnson and was he really invited to Dubai to speak about alternative currencies such as Gemcoin? (Hint: No)
• USFIA Update: Is USFIA involved in child labor exploitation of amber mines in Mexico?
• USFIA Update: Turns out all both the Chinese name and the English name may have been stolen
• USFIA Update: What was USFIA doing before Gemcoin? Exactly the same thing... selling promises of amber