Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, October 3 (Chang Tao) Many people choose to travel by plane during National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. The Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client reminds you to be careful of air mileage safety!
Entering September, many celebrities reported that their airline mileage was stolen, causing widespread concern.
In fact, not only celebrities are recruited, but ordinary people also experience mileage misappropriation.
A reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei found that the trading of air miles has become an industrial chain, and individuals even need to provide account numbers and passwords to sell miles.
Behind the series of chaos, the security of users' personal information has been challenged, and airlines also bear an unavoidable responsibility.
Photo by Chang Tao, New Jingwei in the data map
More than stars! Ordinary people also experience mileage theft
Under normal circumstances, after the airline is registered as a member, you can accumulate a mileage each time you purchase a ticket and travel. The amount of mileage varies according to the class of service and membership card.
These miles can be used to redeem some gifts, the most popular is the redemption of air tickets.
In September, celebrity artists Wu Lei, Jiang Yingrong, and Li Chen's flight mileage was stolen by others, which caused widespread concern.
The above-mentioned artists reported that their airline mileage points were stolen by strangers, and the pirates used these mileage points to redeem air tickets to provide convenience for themselves and their friends.
In addition to the stolen mileage, actor Zhang Meng reported on Weibo recently that he was registered with the airline's membership card without his knowledge.
Zhang Meng said directly, this is more terrifying than the theft of miles, "Is the airline's internet censorship so lax? How could personal ID card information fall into the hands of strangers?"
According to the China-Singapore Jingwei reporter, the stolen or embezzled air mileage not only happened to star artists who fly more frequently, but some ordinary passengers have also encountered similar situations.
Photo by Chang Tao, New Jingwei in the data map
Xiaoru, a member of an airline, told a reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei that she recently discovered that her air miles had been stolen.
"In early September, when I used the airline App to select seats, I accidentally discovered that my 55,000 miles were redeemed for supermarket shopping coupons, gas cards and other items in the mall. And throughout the process, I did not receive any prompts." Xiaoru said, " Later I discovered that the mobile phone number bound to the App had been changed. I guessed that the account and password were leaked. Someone else logged in to the App with the account and password. The account is my ID number."
Xiaoru said that 55,000 miles were stolen several times, but before that, she only received one reminder.
When someone modified her mobile phone number in the App, the airline once sent her an email reminding her that her personal information was modified.
But this email was classified as an advertisement, and Xiaoru did not see this prompt in time.
"I think there are serious security risks in the airline system. For example, if you modify the bound mobile phone number without sending a verification code to the original mobile phone number, there is no prompt when you log in to the App. The points store is easy to exchange and there is no secondary verification." The airline still did not give her a reasonable argument.
A senior cyber security expert told a reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei that whether it is a celebrity or an ordinary passenger, most of the mileage stolen and embezzled are done through the App, and to complete this series of operations, there is no need to borrow how difficult technology. , That is, personal information has been leaked.
"The thief obtained the passenger's member account and password information, such as the ID number or mobile phone number, and completed these exchange operations after logging in." said the aforementioned cybersecurity expert.
Regarding the stolen air miles, Meng Bo, a lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that although mileage points are not property in the usual sense, they are also a kind of property rights.
Infringement of the property rights of others, according to the specific circumstances of the case, should bear civil liability, administrative liability and even criminal liability.
Meng Bo said that in accordance with Article 264 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, theft of public or private property in a relatively large amount, or multiple thefts, thefts into the house, theft with a weapon, or pickpocketing constitutes the crime of theft.
For the purpose of illegal possession, use the name of others to steal other people’s air miles points. If the amount is large, their behavior is suspected of constituting the crime of theft.
Personal account password is required to sell mileage
A reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei found that the trading of air miles has become an industrial chain.
On the second-hand trading platform, there are a large number of sellers who provide services of redeeming air tickets or directly selling mileage points, covering most airlines. China Southern Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Air China, etc. are the most common, with prices ranging from 400 yuan to 500 yuan per 10,000 miles. Wait.
A seller said that major airlines need to bind beneficiaries when users use miles to redeem tickets. Without this step, no one other than the member can enjoy mileage points to redeem tickets.
The binding beneficiary needs an effective process, which generally ranges from half a month to one month. For example, the effective time of China Eastern Airlines is 15 days, and the effective time of China Southern Airlines is 30 days.
So if a passenger wants to buy a ticket closer to the departure date, there will be no time.
A reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei found that the beneficiaries bound by China Eastern Airlines need name, ID number, date of birth, gender, and relationship information. Each member can set up 10 beneficiaries, but the beneficiaries can be deleted.
In the process of binding the beneficiary, China Eastern does not require the member to perform redundant identity verification to complete it.
As to where the mileage in hand came from, the above-mentioned seller said that he would not disclose it.
New Jingwei Zhang Yanzheng in the data map
The China-Singapore Jingwei reporter noticed that in addition to some people selling mileage, they also need to collect mileage.
Dong Xin (pseudonym) specializes in collecting mileage of Eastern Airlines, and "has been engaged in this business for many years."
"300 yuan and 10,000 miles, three days of rebate, free fish." When a reporter from Zhongxin Jingwei asked how to trade mileage, Dong Xin said that he needed to provide the seller’s China Eastern Airlines App login account, password and transaction password.
When asked if personal information would be leaked, he said that there would be no security risk, "you can change the password after the mileage is exhausted."
Dong Xin also said that he received these miles mainly to sell to some companies with relatively large travel needs.
"Some people have miles in their hands, they don't need to travel, and they don't need them for the time being, they can sell these miles to those who need them to exchange tickets."
The above-mentioned security experts said that if you give these important personal information to others, although you can change the password, there are still endless troubles.
"If someone else successfully logs in to your account, it means that all your personal information under this account is exposed. For example, there may be some transaction records in the exchange mall, including the delivery address, mobile phone number and other information. The risk of personal information leakage is extremely high. It is recommended that users sell personal miles."
Expert: the airline's responsibility cannot be avoided if personal information is not protected
Meng Bo said that in judicial practice, some defendants have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and fined by the people's court for stealing other people's air miles points and selling them for profit.
Public information shows that in 2011, Chengdu cracked the first "mileage theft case."
According to media reports, an airline’s agency sales staff took advantage of their positions and system loopholes to steal the personal information of 21 passengers in two months, reselling more than 1 million kilometers of mileage and making a profit of more than 50,000 yuan. Was prosecuted on suspicion of theft.
According to a 2011 report by the Guangzhou Daily, two men sold 280,000 airline miles points in other people’s China Southern Airlines Sky Pearl membership cards. One of the men would get the mileage points in the unknown China Southern Airlines member account from the other man. It was listed for sale on Taobao and was eventually exchanged for four tickets from Guangzhou to Dubai.
In the end, the two men were sentenced to two years and one and a half years in prison respectively.
New Jingwei Zhang Yanzheng in the data map
In order to avoid the occurrence of mileage theft, some airlines have currently enabled facial recognition to verify membership, while some airlines can complete a series of operations such as membership card registration with only ID information.
“Consumers must change their passwords and report to the police when they discover that their airline mileage points have been stolen.” Liu Junhai, a professor at the School of Law of Renmin University of China, pointed out that he also reminded airlines that as a platform party, their responsibilities are unavoidable and may bear civil liabilities. When checking the identity of the celebrity or the login user name and password, the necessary security obligations are not fulfilled, and the airline has a subjective fault."
Meng Bo believes that an important reason why the misappropriation of air miles has been repeatedly prohibited is that the personal information of citizens has not been fully protected.
Regarding how to strengthen the protection of citizens' personal information, Meng Bo believes that the following aspects should be started:
1. From a judicial point of view, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, we must intensify the crackdown on the criminal activities of illegally obtaining, illegally providing, and illegally buying and selling citizens' personal information, so as to increase the criminal cost of criminals and form an effective deterrent.
2. From a legislative point of view, in view of the serious social harm caused by the illegal use of citizens’ personal information as the core behavior of the crime of infringing on citizens’ personal information, it is recommended that criminal laws and regulations be activated to severely punish such acts.
3. From the perspective of telecommunications business operators and Internet information service providers, they should strictly abide by the "Network Security Law", "E-commerce Law", "Telecom and Internet User Personal Information Protection Regulations" and other laws and regulations, User information is kept strictly confidential, and a sound user information protection system has been established.
Fourth, for the majority of netizens, it is necessary to raise the awareness of information protection, standardize operations, and protect their own information security. They must also not trust unfamiliar calls, not easily click on unknown links and QR codes, and not easily transfer money.
When your personal information and property security encounter risks, you should report to the police immediately.
(Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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