Chinanews.com client, Beijing, September 11 (Ren Siyu) This week, news about the stolen air miles of celebrities became a hot topic.
Recently, the topic of “Sister Wu’s Misappropriation of Wu Lei’s Mileage Points” has been on Weibo’s hot search list. A fan of actor Wu Lei posted an audio chat with airline staff, claiming that another fan has repeatedly stolen Wu Lei. Air miles were exchanged for air tickets, and 230,000 flight miles were used up, which seriously infringed on Wu Lei's interests.
In the following days, celebrities such as Jiang Yingrong, Huang Ying, and Li Chen also posted articles stating that their air miles were stolen by people they didn't know.
What exactly is going on?
Source: Video screenshot.
Jiang Yingrong, Huang Ying, and Li Chen are all "successful"
On September 6, a fan of Wu Lei exposed a recording with an airline customer service staff, claiming that another Wu Lei’s "station sister" had embezzled Wu Lei’s airline miles since 2017 to redeem it for himself and his friends for free He bought a number of air tickets and even used Wu Lei’s mileage to chase other artists’ itineraries, using a total of 230,000 flight miles.
Source: Video screenshot.
This incident immediately triggered a heated discussion among netizens, and the staff of China Southern Airlines responded, “I have learned the relevant situation and will report the situation back, and the follow-up processing results need to be notified”.
Some celebrities were inspired to start self-checking their airline mileage, and the results were also "successful."
On September 8, singer Jiang Yingrong posted a screenshot of the identity information of two strangers on Weibo and asked Air China: "My mileage was stolen. What is going on?"
Source: Jiang Yingrong's Weibo.
Studio Jiang Yingrong stated that when calling Air China's customer service to defend rights, the other party proposed a solution, one is to change the password, and the other is to call the police.
In addition, the airline did not give a reasonable explanation for how the stolen 265,000 miles were stolen without confirmation from Jiang Yingrong himself and the close contacts around him.
Soon, Air China’s official Weibo replied that it had paid attention to the matter and would feed it back to the relevant departments to resolve it as soon as possible.
After that, Jiang Yingrong said that he had called the police, and the relevant departments of Air China expressed their willingness to cooperate with the police in the investigation.
Under Jiang Yingrong’s Weibo, singer Huang Ying said that her air mileage had also been stolen, but in the end it was nothing.
"I even called to ask if it was stolen before. I was told how many tickets were exchanged. It was not the same person who boarded the plane. It was several people. I didn't want to understand at the time."
Source: Jiang Yingrong's Weibo.
On September 9th, actor Li Chen also posted on Weibo to reveal that airline mileage was stolen. He discovered that his mileage card had been stolen since 2018. He used a large number of points to redeem a lot of air tickets, and more than ten people "enjoyed" it. Free itinerary in exchange for mileage.
At the end of Weibo, he called on everyone to be vigilant and pay attention to personal information security.
Source: Li Chen Weibo.
Why can airline miles be stolen?
Under normal circumstances, after the airline is registered as a member, you can accumulate a mileage each time you buy a ticket and travel.
For example, if you purchase Air China CA1519 flight from Beijing to Shanghai on September 10, you can accumulate mileage ranging from 271 to 3261. The amount of mileage varies according to the class of service and membership card level.
Source: Air China Mini Program.
Artists often travel to and from major cities to participate in activities due to work reasons, and the chances of flying in first-class cabin are relatively high, so the accumulated air mileage is quite considerable. I am 300,000, how many times do I have to fly?"
For members, these accumulated airline miles can be used to redeem air tickets, redeem airport value-added services, start offline consumption and shopping mall consumption and so on.
For example, if a passenger wants to buy economy class on Air China CA1883 flight from Beijing to Shanghai on September 12, the online ticket purchase will cost 720 yuan, and the exchange will require 12,000 miles.
Source: Air China website.
Source: Air China website.
In addition to personal use, air miles can also be transferred to the assignee designated by the member.
Take China Southern Airlines involved in the incident of Wu Lei Airlines mileage stolen as an example. When a member redeems rewards for others, he must first establish a list of redemption assignees. Each member can set up to 8 redemption assignees.
The Wu Lei fan claimed that the "Sister Station" who embezzled the mileage had previously bound Wu Lei's ID to his mobile phone number without authorization. In this way, Wu Lei's flight mileage would be automatically accumulated in the account.
As the owner of the mobile phone number, the lady can log in to the account at will to view Wu Lei's itinerary, add transferees at will, and use mileage without authorization.
The reporter discovered during the operation of the WeChat applet of China Southern Airlines that to create a list of assignees, one needs to log in to the member account, and then perform real-name authentication through face recognition or UnionPay authentication. After the authentication is passed, the information of the assignee can be added and the name is filled in. And certificate number.
Source: China Southern Airlines Mini Program.
But how did this "station sister" obtain Wu Lei's certificate information and account password?
How did the fans who broke the news use Wu Lei's account to talk to the customer service staff?
It is still a mystery.
Source: Video screenshot.
Is it a crime to embezzle airline miles?
In recent years, in addition to the exposure of the gray industrial chain such as scalper tickets and proxy shooting, incidents of the theft of celebrities' private information have also occurred frequently.
The celebrity’s flight itinerary, passport information, ID number, mobile phone number, Weibo, WeChat account, etc. can all be traded. Buyers can get a celebrity or even a dozen celebrities for a few dozen yuan. Identity information, and even a subscription service can be ordered, and the personal itinerary of the star can be mastered around the clock.
Star flights and identity information were traded.
Source: Screenshot of Moments.
In this incident, fans not only obtained the celebrity's identification information, but also stole the air miles of others.
Zhao Hu, a partner of Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said in an interview with Chinanews.com that such behavior may constitute the crime of theft in the criminal law.
Because airline mileage points are also a kind of property interest, this fan took the property interests of others as his own by stealing secretly, and the amount of property stolen was not small.
Attorney Zhao Hu said that this matter is not just a criminal offense, but also a civil tort.
Because this fan infringed on the property rights of others and caused losses to others, he suggested that the property rights and interests of the loss could be calculated and compensated based on the class of travel and the current fare.
In addition, the disclosure of the celebrity’s member account and password also involves infringement of personal privacy. This includes two aspects. One is that the platform’s information is improperly kept, and the other is that the infringer obtains information through improper means. Civil issues.
The theft of airline miles was sentenced, in fact, there were cases as early as nine years ago.
According to the official account of the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court, in 2011, the defendant was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment and fined by the Wuhou District People’s Court of Chengdu for stealing other people’s air miles points and selling them for profit in 2011. 1,000 yuan, and return the illegal proceeds to the victim.
Source: Chengdu Intermediate People's Court Official Account.
In the case at that time, the court held that the defendant used another person’s name to apply for a certain airline membership card for the purpose of illegal possession, secretly stealing and selling other people’s airline mileage points, and the amount was relatively large. The act constituted the crime of theft.
This time, many celebrity airline miles were stolen, not only the crazy fans "trying the law", but also a wake-up call for everyone to pay attention to personal privacy.
What do you think?
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