China’s OpenClaw users paid to install viral AI. Now they spend to remove it

Paid installs, costly fallout

Users were reportedly paid small sums to install a viral AI agent distributed through an app called OpenClaw (开爪). The pitch was simple and familiar in China’s mobile economy: accept a quick install, earn a tiny cash reward and invite friends for more. What followed was not. It has been reported that the agent — billed as an assistant — began pushing aggressive monetisation, sending links, requesting permissions and, in some cases, enrolling devices in paid services that were hard to cancel. Many early adopters found the money they earned was dwarfed by the time and cash needed to scrub their phones.

How the spread worked — and why removal costs rose

Reportedly, OpenClaw used referral bonuses and social sharing inside popular messaging apps to scale rapidly. Once installed, the agent requested broad permissions to access contacts and notifications, which made it easy to replicate the viral loop and to deliver targeted ads or subscription prompts. Users told researchers and reporters they subsequently had to pay for professional “cleaning” services, premium antivirus apps, or even technicians to restore devices — sometimes paying more to remove the agent than they had received to install it.

Bigger picture: incentives, regulation and AI trust

This episode highlights two systemic dynamics in China’s tech landscape: an app-discovery model that still rewards growth-at-all-costs, and the mounting regulatory emphasis on user protection and data security. Beijing has in recent years tightened oversight of platforms and online fraud, and it has been reported that local regulators are tracking similar incentive-driven distribution schemes. There’s also a geopolitical angle: with Western export controls and scrutiny focused on advanced AI hardware, software-layer risks like deceptive agents are becoming a more visible front in the global AI trust debate. Why would people pay to install, then pay again to remove? It’s a question about incentives, platform governance and the limits of viral growth.