Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, August 3rd. Title: Daily income of hundreds or even thousands of yuan...What secrets and risks are hidden in the "easy profit" WeChat rental business?

  Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Hu Linguo and Mao Xin

  "Rent WeChat and add me, long-term effective" "Receive WeChat at a high price, you can rent it for 180 yuan a day if you don't want to sell it"... Recently, similar "advertisements" appeared in some circles of friends and WeChat groups.

  "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter's investigation found that some people are greedy for small profits and rent out their WeChat accounts to others. Most of these WeChat accounts are used by criminals to commit fraud, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Pay a heavy price for petty profits

  In October 2019, Li and Bi, students from a technical school in Xinxiang, Henan Province, discovered a "how to make money": renting out WeChat account to others, and only need to log in to the computer version of WeChat every day, and get a reward of 80 yuan. Found profitable, they became second-door dealers, collecting WeChat accounts from classmates and friends for 50 yuan a day and renting them out to others to earn the difference. They made more than 10,000 yuan in just a few months.

  Soon, they paid a heavy price for this. In April of this year, the police discovered that criminals used more than 100 WeChat accounts rented by Li and Bi to add hundreds of part-time WeChat groups to publish fraud information such as online orders and loans, and then commit criminal activities of telecom fraud . Subsequently, Li and Bi were taken criminal coercive measures.

  Li and Bi are not alone. The reporter's investigation found that in recent years, many people on the Internet have been doing "business" with WeChat accounts and Alipay accounts, and the daily rent for some online accounts is even as high as hundreds or thousands of yuan.

  The reporter contacted an intermediary account company that received WeChat account on the Internet. He introduced that the rental is achieved by logging in to the WeChat computer version to achieve "dual platform login", which does not affect the normal use of the account owner, and if the account owner finds an abnormality, he can always Cancel login.

  The intermediary agency said that the rental prices of different WeChat accounts are different. The newly registered WeChat account is the cheapest. It has been "raised" for a few months and has a friend circle account that is more expensive. It is even more expensive if the bank card is bound and has payment functions. More expensive, and accounts with large transfers are the most expensive. A WeChat account that has been registered for more than half a year, has more than 40 friends, and is active in the circle of friends, the daily rent can reach 60 yuan to 100 yuan.

  The WeChat platform stated that WeChat is not allowed to rent. If users rent out their WeChat accounts registered under their real names, they may face the risk of losing their WeChat accounts; personal data and private information in the WeChat accounts are at risk of being lost or misused by others; WeChat payment accounts and associated bank card accounts are at huge risks to the security of funds ; The WeChat account is used by others to engage in illegal and criminal activities, and the account subject (the user himself) may also be liable for this, even criminal responsibility.

What do they rent WeChat account for?

  Why would anyone want to rent a WeChat account? What did these people do with the rented WeChat ID?

  According to the Guangdong police, some advertisers and businesses use rented WeChat accounts to post false advertisements, pornography and gambling information. Some people use rented accounts to evade monitoring by anti-money laundering platforms, and disperse the stolen money obtained through fraud and gambling into small transfers of funds. The owner of the WeChat account renting out the WeChat account may have assisted others in carrying out illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering without realizing it, and has become an accomplice of criminals.

  Regarding the "dual-platform login" that criminals usually claim to log in to the WeChat computer version, the WeChat team introduced that this is actually using illegal plug-in software to modify WeChat functions and interfaces, add malicious functions, and tamper with WeChat client data.

  Shu Shenglai, a lawyer at the Beijing Mengzhen Law Firm, said that the WeChat account itself is free to register. People who rent other people's WeChat account are generally used to carry out various illegal and criminal activities. Lease the personal WeChat account to others, the behavior of the account owner is also suspected of constituting a crime of helping information cybercriminals. In addition, if the WeChat account of others is subletted or resold to others, it may constitute a crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.

  According to the case law from the Judgment Document Network, in 2018, Fujian Zhang bought a WeChat account and password from another person, changed the password and sold it to tea merchant Li at a price of 30 to 70 yuan, earning 61,360 yuan. In June 2018, Zhang was sentenced to 3 years in prison for illegally buying and selling citizens’ personal information, which constituted a crime of infringing on citizens’ personal information.

  The police said that there are still some difficulties in combating such crimes. For example, intermediaries who rent WeChat accounts often commit crimes in different places, and often commit crimes by forging IP addresses or using overseas registered IPs, which makes it difficult to identify criminal suspects and makes it difficult to obtain electronic evidence.

How to prevent illegal rent and sale of accounts?

  The reporter learned that the "Tencent WeChat Software License and Service Agreement" signed by users and the WeChat platform stipulates that WeChat users shall not give, borrow, rent, transfer, sell, or otherwise permit others to use WeChat accounts.

  Since many users do not read the service agreement of the platform carefully when registering for WeChat, experts such as Huang Zhen, professor of the School of Law of Central University of Finance and Economics and director of the Institute of Financial Law, suggested that the WeChat platform should increase risk warnings instead of just generalizing The prompts in the user license agreement should be separately proposed to help users fully understand the property and legal risks of the rental account. At the same time, we should strengthen the publicity of the social harm and handling of such behaviors, and use technical means to prevent them in time.

  Industry experts say that WeChat and Alipay payment applications are becoming more and more widespread, but the current domestic laws and regulations and departmental regulations lack clear regulations on the behavior of renting and selling personal WeChat and Alipay accounts.

  In December 2019, the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Public Security issued a notice stating that the People’s Bank of China will promptly release the information of the entities and individuals through the new type of illegal and criminal transaction risk management platform for telecommunications networks for entities and individuals that are identified by the public security organs for buying and selling bank cards and accounts. As far as banks and payment institutions are concerned, banks and payment institutions shall promptly impose penalties on units and individuals who buy and sell bank cards and accounts. However, the notice did not explicitly mention WeChat, Alipay and other online accounts with real-name payment transfer functions.

  Ou Wei’an, a professor at the Law School of Guangzhou University, believes that WeChat and Alipay transfers and bank card transfers are essentially the same. In the case that online fraud has penetrated into WeChat, Alipay and other payment methods, the platform that combines social and payment functions should be Implement stricter supervision. According to the classification and rating of payment institutions and the implementation of the real-name system of payment accounts, differentiated management of payment institutions can be implemented, and the joint management and control of banks, communications departments and public security agencies can be strengthened.

  The public security department reminded users to strengthen their awareness of prevention and properly keep personal WeChat accounts, Alipay accounts, QQ numbers and other information to avoid being used by criminals to commit telecommunications network fraud crimes. Once you find that your WeChat account, Alipay account, QQ number and other information are suspected of committing illegal and criminal activities, you should report it to the public security agency as soon as possible.