Any info on Xing World?

[djgizmoe]

Alright junior FG detectives, time to pull out your sniffing dogs and help me
out here. I have several ex-pat acquaintances in the Kansai area who have paid around 40-man-en to "get in on the ground floor" of a new virtual world apparently being developed by a company called Frepar (self-proclaimed makers of this bizarre "idol pod"). As far as I can tell, the only thing they are getting in return is the opportunity to buy virtual real estate which they can then use for advertising, rent, etc. The so-called "pre-membership" phase of this program is over (in which participants have the chance to earn so-called "passive income" if they get their friends in on it too), so this is probably too late to stop anyone from becoming an 'investor'. And my acquaintances involved seem to have lost objectivity in the matter, having been convinced at an English language seminar. Still, I'm morbidly curious. Here are the links to all the companies apparently involved, plus a link to Frepar's Xing World infomercial. Any hard info would be much appreciated.

1. Frepar Japanese link:
http://www.freparnetworks.co.jp/, Frepar English link:
http://www.freparnetworks.co.jp/eng/index.html.
2. IDR http://www.i-d-r.co.jp/.
3. Biz-international http://www.biz-int.jp/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84eNjvitlos

[IkemenTommy]

I was approached a while ago too by probably the same people in Osaka with some "get rich quick scheme" type business. I think they were bunch of eikaiwa senseis who found a business opportunity in Japan selling pieces of virtual real estates. I guess the idea behind it is like Sims where you ride virtual trains with your virtual buddies and go shopping at a virtual mall with your virtual cash, which you pay upfront as advanced cash. You can do all this anti-social behavior at the comfort of your own private home and not ever having to go out or interact with real people.

I sat through the online webinar anyway but I saw no solid business foundation and everything appeared like vaporware to me. The 40man upfront fee, which was part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, to have a share as the investor group just sounded absurd and fishy so that was the end of it.

Here was the link from that time
http://web.mac.com/kigouya/madoguchi/3D_internet_business_opportunity.html

[Mulboyne]

[djgizmoe]

Thanks gentlemen, that was fast. I'm concerned because a person who recently came to one of my academic seminars on education in Second Life seemed to have gotten interested in the whole idea of virtual worlds through me, which apparently then led to her involvement in this scheme. Also, on a purely selfish level, I'm doing research in SL with Japanese university students and have found that many colleges here are highly averse to lowering firewalls to allow for SL use on campus; should a high profile virtual worlds scam ever hit the papers, it's just going to be that much harder to be able to use it in classes. Sigh...

As for SL in general, it's a notoriously unstable place to set up shop, and it's unlikely you'll make money unless you have real design talent or a huge start-up to invest in virtual real estate. But for EFL researchers and teachers, it's turning into an amazing little environment...

[FG Lurker]

I was approached about this last year, before the deadline for initial investors.

There was a lot of talk about a strong IT infrastructure being put into place as well as having some major Japanese corporations behind the project.

I have no idea about the major corps, but as far as I could tell their IT infrastructure claims were at best "creative" and at worst BS.

I'm not surprised by the wiki claims of delays, I would be surprised if it actually ever launches. If it does launch I can't imagine it being even 10% of what they have claimed it will be.

You won't be surprised to hear that I didn't buy in. (I can't justify using the term "invest". )

[FG Lurker]

Does anyone know what happened with this? Did it ever launch? Total scam?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Does anyone know what happened with this? Did it ever launch? Total scam?

For the low price of 40 man yen, I'll tell you all about it.

[FG Lurker]

For the low price of 40 man yen, I'll tell you all about it.

A bargain at twice the price!

[IkemenTommy]

For the low price of 40 man yen, I'll tell you all about it.

Imagine all the booze you can buy with 40 man! A round of Veuve Clicquot for everyone.

[FG Lurker]

Does anyone know what happened with this? Did it ever launch? Total scam?

Looks (unsurprisingly) like it indeed was a total scam:


IT, system development firms searched by police over virtual world investment scam
Mainichi Daily News, May 27, 2010

Police searched the offices of an IT firm, a system developer and 14 other locations Thursday in connection with a virtual world-based investment scam involving some 28,000 members and 10 billion yen in cash.

Saitama Prefectural Police suspect members were attracted to the "Xing World" virtual community, conceived by system developer Frepar Networks and managed by IT firm Biz International, through false claims -- a violation of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions.

[...]

However, Xing World's virtual spaces were not yet complete by its October 2009 general release, with only a small number of neighborhoods open to users. Furthermore, the world did not have the real estate trade function advertised to early members, and avatars were unable to do anything except walk through a limited number of locales.

(Full Story)

[Mulboyne]

However, Xing World's virtual spaces were not yet complete by its October 2009 general release, with only a small number of neighborhoods open to users. Furthermore, the world did not have the real estate trade function advertised to early members, and avatars were unable to do anything except walk through a limited number of locales.

On more than a few occasions I've found myself "unable to do anything except walk through a limited number of locales."

[FG Lurker]

Internet service firm chief nabbed over cyberspace pyramid scheme
Kyodo via MDN, July 6, 2011

SAITAMA (Kyodo) -- The chief of Internet service firm Biz International was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of enticing people to join a cyberspace service, which police believe is linked to a pyramid scheme, on false information, police said.

Shigeo Ishihara, 49, is alleged to have deceived two people in February and March 2009 to join the Internet virtual world by lying to them that major companies are taking part and that users can engage in real estate business.

The company collected roughly 9.1 billion yen from about 25,000 members between June 2007 and May 2009 by selling a set of business materials that contained a DVD of the virtual world, according to the police who suspect the business of being a massive scam.

(Full Story)

Just an update on how this is progressing. I wonder if anyone got their money back or if it all got moved offshore before the hammer came down...