A Douyin livestream viewer lost a cumulative 300,000 yuan after being drawn into a sophisticated stock-tipping pig-butchering scam that impersonated CITIC Securities and dangled a bogus discounted IPO subscription. The victim, Mr. Lin, was first approached through Douyin, moved to WeChat, then directed to a third-party chat app and fake trading platforms, where a 2,724-member group chat was later found by police to consist entirely of shills apart from him. Inside the group, a supposed analyst and other members posted fabricated profit screenshots and pushed daily check-ins, lectures and trades to build credibility. The fraud escalated with a false offer to buy China Resources New Energy at an internal price of 3 yuan per share, versus its June 22 online subscription issue price of 10.11 yuan, alongside forged contracts bearing apparent official seals. Small withdrawals totaling 2,287 yuan were allowed, but larger withdrawals were blocked with claims about risk controls, service fees and IPO allotments, leading Mr. Lin to pay an additional 100,000 yuan in supposed service fees. The case highlights how scammers chain together social platforms, off-platform chat tools, counterfeit apps and payment-collection fronts to create a convincing investing trap. Douyin, which warned users against guaranteed-profit claims and unofficial app downloads, said on December 1, 2025 that it had banned more than 800,000 accounts linked to investment and wealth-management fraud since July 2025, while CITIC Securities said fraudsters had been forging its logo, seals and software to lure investors.