Our reporter Ma Lijuan

  Many consumers have received free gift vouchers issued by jewelry stores when shopping in the mall. They can also draw free prizes when they receive small gifts such as towels and toothbrushes. They are lucky enough to win a big prize, and they can buy it with a few hundred yuan. Take "high-end" jade jewelry.

As everyone knows, behind this lottery model may be a scam carefully designed by the business.

  One box is full of "first prizes"

  Recently, the Xixia District Bureau of the Yinchuan Municipal Market Supervision Administration of Ningxia received a report from netizens that a jewelry store used a lottery to deceive consumers into buying jewelry, and law enforcement officers immediately went to investigate.

  When they arrived at the mall, law enforcement officers saw that the staff at the cashier of the mall was giving out free gift vouchers to customers who came to checkout. Customers can use the gift vouchers to collect small gifts such as masks and cotton swabs at the designated jewelry store counter for free, and they can also draw free prizes.

  After two law enforcement officers pretended to be a customer to receive the gifts, the jewelry store shopping guide took out a lottery box from under the counter, one law enforcement officer drew a "Thank you for your patronage", the shopping guide put the lottery box back, and then took it out for another law enforcement officer The personnel draw, this time won the "first prize".

  The shopping guide said excitedly: "You are so lucky, the first prize is one in a thousand probability." Then he began to sell, buying jewelry for a discount or only 10% of the manual fee, and showed the jewelry and jade jewelry appraisal certificate , The package ticket said: "It's definitely authentic."

  After spotting the tricks, the law enforcement officers immediately identified their identities and found two lottery boxes when they entered the counter. One was all "Thank you for your patronage" lottery tickets, and the other was all "first prize" lottery tickets.

"Shopping guides watch people'deliver food'. If the customer is alone, they will take out the'first prize' lottery box, and if many people take out the two lottery boxes alternately, it creates a false prize draw." Law enforcement officer of Xixia Branch of Yinchuan Market Supervision Administration Li Tingdong said.

  At the same time, law enforcement officers also seized 9 sales notes on the spot, with a sales amount of more than 6,000 yuan, all of which were orders sold through a lottery in recent days.

 False sales with rewards are fraud

  In fact, this kind of scam that uses "lottery", "scratch" and other promotional methods to lure consumers to buy "high-value" goods has been frequently staged across the country in the past few years. Jewelry and jade shops and craft gift shops are the "hardest hit".

  "This kind of winning routine is very confusing." Li Tingdong said, jade jewelry is expensive, and people generally buy it rationally. Some operators seize people's psychology of winning and make consumers mistakenly believe that they are benefiting, causing impulsive consumption.

  According to the sixth paragraph of Article 6 of the "Measures for Infringement of Consumer Rights and Interests", the use of false "rewarded sales", "repayment sales", "experience sales" and other methods to sell goods or services is to deceive and mislead consumers to purchase. Fraud to consumers is an act of unfair competition.

  "Regular prize sales, the number of prizes must be reasonable, and the types of prizes, the conditions for redemption, the amount of prizes, etc. must be announced in the mall." Li Tingdong said that currently law enforcement officers are temporarily based on the "People’s Republic of China Anti-Unfair Competition Law". 26 pieces of jewellery were buckled. The case has been filed and further investigation is underway.

  Fu Yuhao, a lawyer at Ningxia Jiarui Law Firm, told reporters that according to the law, if an operator engages in fraud, he should "refund one compensation for three" to consumers, that is, refund the price of goods purchased by consumers or receive services. Compensation is three times of the cost, and if unfair competition is suspected for false rewarded sales, the operator may also be punished by the administrative department from 50,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan.

  How to protect consumer rights?

  Jade jewellery is different from general merchandise, its pricing range is relatively large, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish it.

Industry insiders told reporters that the jade promoted by many merchants is indeed real jade, but it is of low grade and does not match the selling price. It is difficult for consumers to request return due to quality problems, which allows some merchants to take advantage of the loopholes.

In addition, after enjoying the "discount", generally only pay a few hundred yuan, some consumers will not be held accountable for fear of trouble, and they can only suffer a dumb loss.

  Ha Yinghua, Section Chief of the Complaint and Reporting Center of the Ningxia Market Supervision Department, reminded consumers that the most important thing is to be vigilant and not fall into the trap of greed for cheap when they encounter large amounts of money to make up the price difference.

"After purchasing, keep your consumer credentials, including electronic vouchers such as WeChat Pay. If you suspect that the merchant has fictitious prices, false reward sales, etc., you can call the 12315 hotline to complain and report in time, and the relevant departments will investigate and deal with it."

  Respondents also suggested that the market supervision and management department should step up inspections and found that one case was severely punished. The punishment information should be recorded in the credit file of the operator in accordance with the regulations, and the information should be announced to the public in a timely manner through the corporate credit information publicity system, forming a deterrent effect.

"The media should also strengthen publicity and give consumers a psychological shot." Li Tingdong said.

  In addition, combing through the cases that have occurred, it can be found that jewelry stores often entrust staff such as store cashiers to issue gift vouchers.

"With the credibility blessing of shopping malls, it is easier to mislead consumers. Shopping malls should also raise the barriers to entry for operators, strengthen the training and assessment of employees and operators, and actively perform the supervision and management responsibilities of the mall." Fu Yuhao said.