Merchant: Hello, deal with the dispute.
Suspect: How do you want to solve this? I respect your choice.
Merchant: I will compensate you with a compensation of 50 yuan. You can also keep the goods for use. It is not easy for everyone. You can think about it.
Suspect: Others are settled for 588 yuan and 488 yuan. You can also contact me if you have something to do in the future.
Merchant: It’s 188 yuan for a discount. It’s not easy for everyone.
...
This is a chat record that took place on November 3, 2020. The two parties in the chat were 17-year-old Zhang Mouhao and an e-commerce platform merchant.
15 days later, Zhang Mouhao was investigated by the police at the local police station.
At that time, it had been a year since Zhang Mouhao joined the commercial navy gang organized by Zhang Mouqiang to carry out cyber blackmail.
According to the police handling the case, under the name of "public welfare crackdown", this group organized minors and all kinds of idle personnel to create "online touch porcelain", and used malicious comments, irrigation and other pressure methods to coerce online store merchants to demand "protection fees." ", has a bad influence on the e-commerce platform.
Complain and comment without giving money
Wang Xiaojun from Hefei, Anhui Province, did not expect that he had run a cake shop for many years and had a good reputation. On an e-commerce platform, he was complained that "there is a bug in the cake".
What happened on October 24, 2020, a buyer placed an order for a piece of mullet bread cake from his store. After the arrival of the goods, the other party initiated a dispute order and said that there was a problem with the food on the chat interface of the e-commerce platform, letting Wang Xiaojun privately. solve.
The buyer's online name is "Your Pig", saying that the cakes sold by Wang Xiaojun contained bugs, and he was asked to compensate him for 1,000 yuan in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law.
The request was rejected by Wang Xiaojun.
The other party also threatened that if they did not agree to their request, they would file a complaint with the market supervision department.
Worried that if the platform and the regulatory authorities did not handle it properly after the intervention, it would not only delay time but also affect the turnover, Wang Xiaojun reluctantly chose to compromise and agreed to the other party's request of "compensation of 200 yuan, no refund of goods".
Surprisingly, within a few days, two friends of Wang Xiaojun were also blackmailed by a malicious complaint from the buyer "Your Pig" on the platform.
This made him reconfirm that he was blackmailed by the commercial navy, so he called the police.
When asked by the police, Wang Xiaojun insisted that his products were okay, saying that the other party initiated a dispute order, “If the handling is not done properly, the platform may impose penalties such as lowering the rights, deducting points, lowering the search ranking of the store, and affecting store operations. "
The police investigation found that "your pig" is Zhang Mouqiang.
Zhang Mouqiang established a commercial navy gang suspected of using netizens to carry out extortion. The gang has a special master who will teach the gang members how to blackmail merchants after charging an apprentice fee.
According to Kuang Lei, Deputy Captain of the Serious Cases Brigade of Nansha Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, to ensure the smooth progress of the "touching porcelain", after receiving the goods, Zhang Mouqiang first negotiated with the merchants through chat software on the online shopping platform, and briefly explained the fraud. , Leave contact information and ask for refunds, and gradually put pressure on merchants who do not cooperate with "malicious negative reviews", such as submitting transaction disputes multiple times, malicious reports and comments, etc., gradually intimidating merchants.
"For merchants who are unsuccessful in intimidation, members of the gang will publish store or product links in their peer circles, and organize members of the group to place malicious orders, return goods and negative reviews on the stores, and even promote social platforms such as Weibo of the store. Started to implement a siege, and maliciously report to the merchant's customer service account until the account is blocked, as a revenge." Kwong Lei said.
High school students build a group and accept blackmail
Within a month of "Pengci" cake shop, Zhang Mouqiang was arrested.
At that time, he was in the first year of a vocational college in Jiangxi.
He quickly explained to the police that he was engaged in malicious claims and the process of imparting malicious claims to others through social groups.
As early as his sophomore year in high school, Zhang Mouqiang came into contact with malicious claims.
At that time, he was drawn by some netizens into some learning groups about "Online Mall Fighting Counterfeit Refunds". In these groups, he learned how to search for keywords, how to chat with merchants, and what clauses were used to support claims.
In his computer, the police found a large number of malicious claims on the business scenes of Internet platforms such as JD.com, Suning.com, Meituan, etc., including electric cars, fruits, toothpaste, tea, nasal spray, plant blending oil, and basketball shoes. , And even the teaching content of malicious claims for a variety of commodities such as online game redemption codes.
"In the beginning, I was just a "foodie". After I tasted the sweetness, I slowly started to learn to claim cash from the merchants." Zhang Mouqiang said.
The so-called "eating goods" refers to complaints on the grounds of "three-nothing" or other violations after online shopping, and then forcing the merchant to refund, but not to return the goods.
In a short video made by Zhang Mouqiang, he introduced how to make a claim to a fruit merchant on a social e-commerce platform: After receiving the goods, first hold the fruit and take a photo. The fruit box and the express note should be displayed on the screen, and then from the platform Look for bad fruit photos sent by other people, use retouching software to "move flowers and trees" onto the undamaged fruit photos, and then complain to the platform and make a claim to the merchant.
The reporter learned that Zhang Mouqiang did not know the true identity of his "enter" friends, nor did he pay them an apprenticeship fee, but every time he successfully made a claim, he would send an 88 yuan red envelope to the "master" as a "group meal". ", this is the profile.
In June 2019, he started accepting apprentices by himself, pulled some friends into groups he built, and advertised in the group. He called himself a "white prostitution team" and a "zero sex party", and declared that "I dare not say that I have a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan." It’s okay to work hard to earn a few thousand a month." Let those who want to learn blackmail pay him an apprenticeship fee.
According to the different levels of the content of the teaching, the apprenticeship fee is divided into two packages: one is the "apprentice package" of 388 yuan, which mainly teaches the entry-level simple claim methods, verbal skills, and occasional sharing of defective product links.
The second is the "Cousin Package" of 688 yuan, which requires an ID card or household registration book for real-name authentication. It mainly teaches more comprehensive claims ideas, including ideas for finding defective product links, communication skills with customer service on various Internet platforms, and The sequence of steps for the business to perform psychological control, etc.
As his business is booming, on April 1, 2020, after Zhang Mouqiang’s 18th birthday, the apprentice package will rise to 688 yuan and the cousin package will rise to 888 yuan.
By mid-November, the cousin’s set meal had risen to 1,288 yuan.
After investigation, Zhang Mouqiang continued to recruit school students and social idlers to develop offline, and set up a network society "big pig group". In the past year, he established more than 200 network groups and developed more than 440 "apprentices", including key members. Thirty-six people made illegal profits of more than 300,000 yuan only for "apprenticeship fees".
Malicious claims gang "routine" exposed
According to Kuang Lei, deputy captain of the Serious Case Brigade of the Nansha Branch of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, which is responsible for investigating the case, the police found that the gang used the model of "recruiting counterfeiters-teaching criminal methods-organizing hunting shops-extorting money".
One is to study anti-counterfeiting ideas and find links to defective products.
The core anti-counterfeiting personnel of the gang are mainly responsible for researching anti-counterfeiting ideas, using various means to find products that use abolished standards, counterfeit and inferior products and other defective products on major online shopping platforms, forming a "blackmail claim" idea.
Kwong Lei said that some "counterfeit" products have become defective products favored by anti-counterfeiting personnel because they cannot provide legal proof of purchase channels.
Zhang Mouqiang also admitted that these merchants who sell fake and shoddy products are at a loss, so they are willing to give money.
The second is to send recruitment advertisements in groups and upload criminal methods online.
The core members of the gang sent advertisements in their circles, such as "anti-counterfeiting apprentices" and "cars with compensation", and used screenshots of successful extortion to attract social idlers in order to recruit "apprentices."
After determining the relationship between the master and apprentice, Zhang Mouqiang used the network group to organize lectures, taught claim skills through a combination of pictures, text and voice, and regularly summarized the defective goods and service links of major e-commerce platforms, various policy norms and standard documents, and claims. Talk skills and share through group files.
The third is malicious negative reviews and gradually put pressure on them.
In order to ensure the smooth progress of "online shopping and porcelain", the group first submitted transaction disputes through the platform after receiving the goods, and then negotiated with the merchants, leaving contact information and demanding refunds.
For businesses that do not cooperate, they will make malicious reports, irrigate negative reviews, and put pressure on businesses with words such as "closing the shop" and "going to court."
Of particular concern is that among the 36 key members of the gang, except for two who are 22 years old, the rest are between 15 and 20 years old.
The police stated that the gang used the immature mentality of minors to be easily lured to inculcate improper profit-making methods. During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, young people were more active online and more vulnerable to such negatives.” The influence of the atmosphere of “Internet earning”.
The reporter learned that in recent years, the market supervision system alone has received more than 1 million malicious complaints and reports each year.
According to research on various platforms, businesses have compromised privately more than 5 million pieces.
Zhu Wei, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association, suggested that market and network supervision departments should earnestly perform their supervisory responsibilities, strengthen daily inspections, actively accept reports and complaints, and truly "sink" daily law enforcement into cyberspace.
Social platforms should also assume the main responsibility, increase governance efforts, and work together to eliminate the cancer in these online worlds.
The police stated that in malicious claims cases, some victims were willing to settle their affairs because the amount of extortion was small and did not pay enough attention to them; some victims had weak legal awareness and insufficient awareness of evidence preservation; some victims did have minor faults in the process of operating online shops, and were worried Reporting to the police will be punished.
In the notification, the Ministry of Public Security also reminded the general public that they must calm down and report to the police as soon as they are illegally infringed by criminal forces involved in the information network; keep good chat records, transaction records and other electronic evidence; and actively cooperate with the public security organs for investigations. Evidence collection work, accurately explain the situation, and provide the account number involved in the case, so that the public security organs can conduct in-depth investigations and recover the stolen goods as soon as possible.
Our reporter Mao Xin