Can you really make money by listening to music and guessing the name of the song?
Reporter investigates "cash withdrawal software trap"
● Most cash withdrawal software has the problem of false propaganda and exaggerated propaganda. It is the real purpose of the software company to attract profit. A large number of users cannot withdraw cash at all and spend a lot of time without receiving any rewards.
● Some cash withdrawal software will also induce users to share during use, or use some page design "tricks" to let users unconsciously download plug-ins or jump pages
● If the withdrawal conditions advertised by the withdrawal software cause users to misunderstand and guide them to download, but the software cannot realize the withdrawal function in actual use, it may be suspected of false promotion or false advertising
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Intern Yang Huijia
Ms. Liu from Chaoyang District, Beijing is a housewife who often scans short videos online.
In April of this year, she accidentally saw a short video advertisement of "Listen to the opera and guess the drama, make money easily".
Out of curiosity, she downloaded this software called "Diandian Guess the Song" and successfully withdrew 0.9 yuan after completing the task. Later, she spent 2 hours a day answering questions in the software. When she completed the task and was ready to withdraw, she found that the withdrawal requirements Suddenly increased to "Guess 5000 songs".
Have you been deceived?
Ms. Liu raised a question online, and then found that many people have similar experiences. Some people call it a "cash withdrawal software trap"-it seems that the more questions you answer, the more money you make, but the more difficult the task becomes, and it is still impossible to withdraw cash.
According to a recent investigation by a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, there are still a lot of software such as “click to guess the song” and “make money by answering questions” and “make money by guessing the song”. Advertising slogans such as “red envelopes”, “you can make money without watching ads,” “no threshold for cash withdrawal,” attract people to download apps to answer questions and do tasks.
Many people spend a lot of time on it, and ultimately cannot withdraw at all or can only withdraw a few yuan or even a few cents.
Some people shouted: fooled.
The withdrawal function is exaggerated
Draining profit is the goal
Mr. Cai from Tianjin and Ms. Liu have the same experience.
He told reporters that after downloading "Guess the Song by Clicking", his task showed that "you can withdraw 300 yuan by logging in for 10 consecutive days and guessing 80 questions every day", but after waiting for 10 days to complete the task and prepare to withdraw cash, "Guess the song by clicking on it" He also proposed to "guess 5000 songs" to withdraw.
Mr. Cai decisively uninstalled the software.
So, can "Guess 5000 songs" really be withdrawn?
“It’s impossible to withdraw cash at all.” Ms. Xiao from Daxing, Beijing, said that she worked so hard to answer the questions. , Thai and other non-Chinese songs began to appear, and there were still many questions without correct answers.
When 5200 songs were completed, the software showed that it had reached the upper limit of the number of guessed songs, but it was still unable to withdraw cash.
Ms. Xiao told reporters that she immediately contacted the customer service of the "Diandian Guessing Song" software.
The customer service said that the subsequent version of the software is still under development and there is currently no solution.
"That is, it is impossible to complete the withdrawal. It is simply a lie, defrauding traffic and wasting the user's time."
During the National Day holiday this year, the reporter searched for the "Diandian Guessing Song" software in the mobile application market according to the guidance of Ms. Liu, and found that the software had been removed from the shelves.
On October 18, when the reporter searched again, he found a software called "Diandian Guessing the Song-Get Cash" available for download.
Ms. Liu told reporters that the appearance and images of "Diandian Guess the Song-Get Cash" and "Diandian Guess the Song" are similar, and the advertisements and gameplay are similar.
In the software reviews of "Guess the Song-Get Cash", the polarization is serious. Some commented that "It's very fun, more than a few hundred dollars can be withdrawn at once." Software, come download it, puzzle brain", these comments are all rated 5 stars; there are also comments saying "No way, it is recommended not to download, you can only mention 0.3 yuan, not much at all" "Too bad," It is said that if I complete the task in 5 days, I can receive 300 yuan. I did not receive the task after completing the task." These comments were all given 1 star.
More than 1,500 reviews, with an average score of 2.5.
In fact, there are many similar software for doing tasks, answering questions and cashing out.
The reporter saw a lot of "reading novels withdrawing cash" and "listening to music withdrawing cash" advertisements and bloggers recommended videos on a short video platform, most of which were accompanied by the text "I made pocket money, the operation is simple, go and try it."
In the mobile application market, reporters found a variety of software for guessing the song, such as "Guess the Song" and "Guess the Song".
The scores of these software are mostly around 1 to 2, and the comment area is full of bad reviews of "cannot withdraw" and "liar software".
The reporter's investigation found that there are two main categories of mobile cash withdrawal software:
The first category is that the software itself provides users with substantive services. Withdrawal is used as an auxiliary function to attract users to download and use the software. This type of software is usually a product of a relatively well-known company and can be withdrawn, but the amount is small. Match.
For example, "Tomato Novel" provides free novel reading as its main service content. Some users indicated that they only withdrew 15 yuan after watching it for more than 700 hours.
"Although the amount of withdrawal is very different from the advertisement, the original intention of using it was to read novels, so I didn't feel deceived, and the experience is still okay." A user said.
However, there are also users who are dissatisfied because of the large difference between the withdrawal amount and expectations.
The second category is that the software only attracts users for the purpose of withdrawing cash. Users earn cash withdrawals by continuously doing tasks, playing games and watching advertisements for the duration of completion, and then withdraw cash when the amount is accumulated to the application.
However, users generally report that they cannot successfully withdraw cash: after completing a task, this type of software will continue to increase the withdrawal requirements.
According to the reporter's observation, most cash withdrawal software has the problem of false propaganda and exaggerated propaganda. It is the real purpose of the software company to attract profit. A large number of users cannot withdraw cash at all and spend a lot of time without any reward.
The authenticity of celebrity endorsements is difficult to distinguish
False propaganda inducing advertising
It is understood that some cash withdrawal software will induce users to share during use, or use some page design "tricks" to let users unconsciously download plug-ins or jump pages.
A netizen "Shen Zang Blue" who has used a lot of cash withdrawal software said that the cash withdrawal software will be filled with a large number of advertisements in the process of completing tasks, and there are many inducements, such as a false close page option on the screen, once the user touches The software in the advertisement will be downloaded automatically.
"Deep hidden blue" said that it initially believed in the authenticity of the withdrawal for two reasons: one is that some software can actually withdraw cash at the beginning, such as withdrawing 0.3 yuan; the other is that "×××(user nickname) will continue to appear at the top of the interface ) The barrage of successful withdrawal of 500 yuan.
"Think about it now, this is the routine of software companies, which embezzled users' WeChat avatars for false propaganda."
In the comments under "Zhihu" related questions, the reporter found that many users found that they could not withdraw cash after completing 1,000 to 2,000 song guesses or a certain amount of tasks. The comments did not successfully withdraw a large amount of money.
The reporter noticed during the investigation that some cash withdrawal software is endorsed by celebrities, but the authenticity of the endorsements remains to be verified.
Mr. Wang from Tianjin told reporters that he didn't really believe in cash withdrawal software at first, "How can there be such a good thing in the world", but after seeing the celebrity endorsements, he felt that he had a certain degree of credibility.
He downloaded a cash-out software for watching video advertisements, and continued to do tasks. The requirements of the tasks continued to increase. Later, he asked to watch 98,000 video advertisements to withdraw cash. This made him realize that he would never have this "free lunch". "NS.
Many interviewees said that some unscrupulous software developers, under the name of "making money at leisure," take advantage of users’ desire to make easy money, and use exaggerated slogans or inducing advertisements to induce people to download software, defrauding downloads and traffic. I hope that the majority of netizens will keep their eyes open and not be deceived.
Administrative Department Supervision Penalties
The circumstances are serious or constitute a crime
On August 30, the official Weibo "Black Cat Complaint" of the Sina Black Cat Consumer Service Platform released information showing that there were nearly 200,000 complaints related to "cash withdrawal" on the platform.
Duan Yingzi, a lawyer from Beijing Tao'an Law Firm, said bluntly: "If the withdrawal conditions of the withdrawal software promote users to misunderstand and guide them to download, but the software cannot realize the withdrawal function when it is actually used, it may be suspected of false promotion or false advertising. "
Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, pointed out that the Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates that operators must not make false or misunderstandings about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user reviews, honors, etc. of their products. The commercial propaganda deceives and misleads consumers.
Business operators shall not help other business operators conduct false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions or other methods.
Violators shall be ordered by the supervision and inspection department to stop the illegal acts and impose a fine. If the circumstances are serious, the business license may be revoked.
Those who publish false advertisements shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the Advertising Law.
"Consumers have the right to know the true status of the goods they buy, use, or receive services. Induced sharing, inducing downloads, and false propaganda are marketing methods used by merchants. If it is to conceal the truth, deceive consumers, or violate consumer rights According to the protection law, if the rights and interests of consumers are damaged, they can demand compensation from the service provider." Zheng Ning said.
Liu Deliang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University and director of the Asia-Pacific Network Law Research Center, analyzed that from the perspective of advertising law, some cash withdrawal software provides so-called products and services that are false and violate the provisions of the advertising law and constitute false publicity. It supervises and imposes corresponding penalties; from the perspective of contract law, if the content of false propaganda constitutes a contract clause, and the merchant does not perform the contract for the purpose of fraud, it may constitute contract fraud, and consumers can either claim that they bear responsibility for breach of contract , You can also request to terminate the contract and compensate for the loss; from the consumer rights protection law, false propaganda and fraud constitute an infringement of consumers’ right to know, and some may constitute an infringement of consumers’ right to choose. Consumers can sue; from the perspective of criminal law, If it constitutes contract fraud, where the purpose is not to perform the contract, but simply to deceive consumers, serious cases may constitute contract fraud in the criminal law, and criminal responsibility may be pursued.
Regarding the phenomenon that some software in the mobile phone application market uses "cash withdrawal" as a gimmick, deceiving consumers, and draining software, Zheng Ning analyzed that one of the main reasons is that there are many violations of this type and the relevant departments have insufficient enforcement; second, this type of illegality Behavioral costs are low, benefits are high, and profit-driven make this phenomenon difficult to control and stop.
During the interview, many users asked questions: Does the mobile application market platform have no supervisory responsibility for this kind of cash withdrawal software?
In this regard, Liu Deliang said that from a legal perspective, under normal circumstances, the platform does not have the obligation to actively supervise, but for the withdrawal software that has been repeatedly complained, the platform should take corresponding measures. If the truth is verified, it can take the complained software to be removed from the shelves and restrict the Complaints about software entering the application market and other measures.
If the platform refuses to perform its duties for software that has been repeatedly complained by users, it shall bear the corresponding responsibility.
At the same time, Liu Deliang said that from the perspective of institutional supervision, whether it is industrial and commercial supervision, advertising law enforcement agency supervision or platform internal supervision, faced with the repeated listing of cash withdrawal software for "vest", there are problems with greater supervision difficulties.
To eradicate this phenomenon, criminal law intervention is necessary.
Although for a single user, the amount of the cash withdrawal software suspected of fraud is not large, the large number of people suspected of fraud may also constitute a fraud in the contract law.
Once a fraud is constituted, the public security organ intervenes and treats it as a criminal case, and investigating the criminal responsibility of the relevant personnel may be the most deterrent and ultimate means.
Zheng Ning reminded that, in the mobile phone application market where there is a mixture of eyes and ears, in response to the phenomenon of false propaganda and inducing downloading of cash withdrawal software, while relevant departments are strengthening regulation and rectification, consumers should also keep their eyes open.
Avoid the "pie in the sky" psychology, calmly analyze the temptation, and beware of falling into the trap of false propaganda, so as not to waste time contributing traffic to bad software.
When encountering infringements, consumers should bravely protect their rights through platforms such as 12315.