No More Bets 2023

After being lured abroad with promises of a lucrative job, programmer Pan Sheng finds himself trapped in a brutal fraud factory, which resembles a slave camp. Under threats of violence, Sheng is forced to participate in an illegal online scheme that defrauds innocent victims. Inside the camp, he encounters Liang Anna, a model who was also tricked into working for the syndicate under false pretenses. Anna works on-camera as a dealer in the online gambling section, a role she despises but cannot escape. Sheng, showing a surprising sense of kindness and ingenuity, offers to help Anna reach her sales target with the hope that this will grant her a chance to leave and send a message to her loved ones.

Using Anna’s identity, Sheng begins to manipulate Gu Tianzhi, a young man addicted to online gambling. Sheng feeds Tianzhi false tips with the aim of increasing his bets, which quickly lands him in heavy debt. When Tianzhi’s worried girlfriend, Song Yu, seeks help from the police, officer Zhao Dongran is assigned to investigate. She quickly identifies that Tianzhi is potentially a victim of a scam. Despite the efforts of Tianzhi’s loved ones to intervene, Tianzhi becomes increasingly desperate and impulsively transfers a massive sum of RMB8 million to “Anna.” The transfer is detected but cannot be stopped in time by Zhao’s online monitoring team, and the syndicate empties the account almost immediately. This leads Tianzhi to the brink of despair, culminating in him attempting to jump from his apartment window in a cry for help.

Anna is told by the camp’s manager, Lu Bingkun, that her sales quota has been raised and she cannot leave. Sheng devises a plan to build an app that will enable Lu to run scams more efficiently, gaining himself new privileges within the syndicate. In a desperate attempt to communicate, Sheng writes on a bank note, hoping it will be discovered and that a message can be sent out. However, the message is intercepted, and both Sheng and Anna are subjected to torture as punishment. During a transfer in a bus, Anna manages to escape by jumping out and seeking help at a police station. Unfortunately, the officers are complicit with the syndicate, and Cai, Lu’s enforcer, stages Anna’s murder to cover their tracks. Despite this, Anna’s determination leads her to escape once again.

Zhao Dongran reconnects with Song Yu and uses evidence from Tianzhi’s phone to uncover Anna’s true identity. Anna eventually returns home, where she is taken into police custody but refuses to disclose her whereabouts during her ordeal. She is then made to participate in a scam awareness seminar and visits Tianzhi, who is in a coma at the hospital, as part of efforts to extract critical information about the syndicate.

A large-scale anti-fraud operation is set in motion. Authorities raid the camps and arrest key figures like Lu Bingkun and Cai, although the latter is killed during a shootout. The physical evidence is limited, as Lu destroys most of the computers, but Sheng’s app and the messages he left behind prove invaluable. Thanks to the help of a friend who notices Sheng’s coded messages, the police locate the syndicate’s hideout in an elementary school and successfully conduct a raid, arresting all members except Cai, who is killed in the ensuing confrontation.

In the aftermath, Zhao leads an anti-fraud conference, where Song Yu, Sheng, and Anna deliver speeches to raise awareness. The film closes on a tense note, as a covert member of the syndicate observes the event from afar, hinting that these crimes may not be entirely over.

“There are some dangers you can’t see coming.”