"Congratulations on the loan of 500,000, customers can't follow." Xiao Bo (pseudonym), who claims to be an e-marketing smart outbound service provider, updated the circle of friends and added a screenshot of the customer's successful loan.
In Xiao Bo's circle of friends, there are many similar "success stories."
Xiao Bo claims that his telemarketing robot can make more than 1,000 calls in a single day, maintain a connection rate of 30% or even higher, and can evade supervision and prevent account closures.
Are you still harassing phone calls for promoting loans and POS machines?
From late October to November 2021, The Paper surveyed by reporters found that chaos in the e-marketing industry still exists. The technical model of "outbound call system + e-marketing robot" claims to be able to make precise calls on dedicated lines, mark customer information, and evade communication through technology. Operator's supervision; behind it, illegal transactions of personal information, illegal sales of POS machines, etc. are hidden behind it.
Telemarketing outbound call system known as "anti-sealing"
Telemarketing is a sales method that relies on the telephone. It communicates with customers through a dedicated telephone marketing number to complete product recommendations, quotations, and transactions. However, this method tends to cause harassment to users.
In the media reports, there are many cases of telephone users who often receive telemarketing calls and are harassed by them.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the three major operators have adopted measures such as "high-frequency call banning" in recent years. However, with the application of smart voice and other technologies, smart outbound software that claims to be able to make a large number of calls a day and can "anti-block" (prevent banning) The system still leaves users overwhelmed by defense.
The Paper's recent investigation found that some telemarketing software uses "anti-sealing" as a gimmick to attract customers, and various "anti-sealing robots" are gradually gaining popularity in the market.
Searching with the keyword "e-marketing" in Baidu Tieba and Tencent QQ showed a large amount of "e-marketing software" related information.
The reporter randomly joined a QQ group called "E-Marketing Outbound Call System". There are over a thousand members in the group, and the account named "E-Marketing System Chamber of Commerce" publishes various e-marketing related sales information in the group from time to time.
"E-marketing card", "E-marketing App", "E-marketing anti-sealing system"....
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The marketing information in the group claims that the services provided can cover the entire industries such as finance, collection, loans, insurance, health care, liquor, auto insurance, and games.
The reporter randomly added the WeChat account of Xiao Bo, a telemarketing smart outbound service provider, from the QQ group.
He asked the reporter what business he wanted to do, saying, "Let's see if it can be done. Now the telecommunication fraud investigation is strictly conducted."
After confirming that it was a "campus loan" business, he introduced his products very enthusiastically and sent a price list, including a set of 300 yuan for the development of real-life skills, and according to different prices and specifications, it is divided into basic version, premium version and Agent version of the robot package.
During the conversation, Xiao Bo said that most of his clients are selling financial stocks, loan insurance and POS machine sales, all of which can be "anti-sealed".
In his description, the "anti-blocking robot" does not require any calling cards and auxiliary equipment, and the outbound call system purchased together will use the group call line to dial numbers.
In response to the reporter’s question “Is it blocked if you make too many calls”, Xiao Bo replied that a certain line will inevitably have complaints every month, but as long as the upper limit of the complaint rate is reached, the line will be shut down and replaced. One, to prevent the system purchased by the customer from being blocked.
He also mentioned a new business that is about to be launched-a telemarketing anti-sealing App.
In the promotional pictures of the App, the words "the three major operators will be whitelisted in seconds and high frequency will not be blocked" are placed in the most conspicuous position.
In order to further dispel the reporter's doubts, Xiao Bo added, "We are a first-level landed line provider, and we are all cooperating with operators."
He Zheng (pseudonym), another service provider who claims to have been engaged in e-marketing system research and development for 6 years, explained to reporters that the current e-marketing robot business basically adopts the "line + system + service" model.
Buyers only need to use the account they provide to enjoy a full set of services, "including technical support, carrying lines and after-sales."
In the 1 minute 22 second recording of "Loan Talk" he sent, a woman who claimed to be a "customer service representative of a bank" indicated to the customer on the phone that he could apply for a loan of 3 million to 5 million, and "to borrow money with you." Pay back".
In this conversation, the customer service representative repeatedly stated that he was a staff member of "a bank credit center", and asked about the occupation of the telemarketing customer, the loan and insurance business handled, and whether he has a house or car under his name. .
He Zheng said that this so-called "bank customer service representative" purchased their e-marketing system, recorded the recording in advance, and combined the system into a complete marketing statement based on the matching of the system. The customer thought it was a real person and was constantly being "marketed". Will place an order with a loan.
But in fact, they don't know whether this "bank customer service representative" is a bank employee or a telecommunications fraudster.
The "material dealer" in the dark of the e-commerce industry
In the telemarketing industry, an important part is to obtain customer information resources.
Illegal transactions in personal information are also breeding in the dark.
After the reporter joined a QQ group, a "feeder" who claimed to provide health care lines (the person who provided information such as user phone numbers) sent a message in the QQ group that he obtained consumers who purchased certain health care books in the TV shopping program The information is then sold to the e-marketing team or system service provider that promotes health products.
In the screenshots he sent, these consumers were distributed in different provinces such as Shandong, Henan, and Zhejiang.
Compared with system service providers, "material vendors" appear to be more cautious.
They usually do not directly provide contact information such as WeChat or phone, and will only communicate further after confirming that the other party is an "intended customer".
In a chat with a "material supplier" named "AZY", the reporter learned that customer resources are mostly divided into "AI material" and "hand stripped material".
"AI material" is provided for use by telemarketing robots, and "hand stripped material" is used by employees who make calls manually.
According to the feedback rate of the call, the prices of the two "materials" are also different.
Generally speaking, the feedback rate of "hand stripped material" is higher than that of "AI material" and the price is higher.
Based on the price standard sent by "AZY", 600 yuan can buy 10,000 pieces of "AI material" or 1,000 pieces of "hand stripped material" user information. These "materials" are usually replaced with different pinyin abbreviations. For example, the private line for stockholders is called "GM fan" by them, and the online loan is called "Wd".
There are many posts about "anti-pits and second-hand suppliers" in Baidu Tieba.
Some familiar "materials" will add WeChat to each other and establish their own WeChat groups, in the hope that their "materials" can expand or stabilize the source.
The reporter found in the investigation that, in order to be more concealed, the transactions between feeders and buyers are often transferred from WeChat to other more private online trading platforms.
The line operator "AXY" chose an overseas chat software called "Telegram" to complete the transaction with the customer. After failing to conclude the transaction with the reporter, "AXY" immediately closed his QQ space.
How to rectify the chaos in electricity sales
The chaos in telemarketing has received frequent attention in recent years and has been rectified.
In 2019, the Central Bank issued [2019] Document No. 85 "Notice of the People's Bank of China on Further Strengthening the Management of Payment and Settlement to Prevent New Types of Illegal Crimes in Telecommunications Networks", which directly pointed to the chaotic phenomenon of telephone sales of POS machines.
At the same time, a number of payment institutions issued an announcement regarding the strict prohibition of online sales and e-sales POS machines.
However, the service provider He Zheng's circle of friends is still full of sales records of a large number of "POS machine" telemarketing customers. The reporter did not show him any financial industry license when inquiring about the sales of POS machines.
According to media reports, telemarketing scams on POS machines have long been an area with a high incidence of complaints.
Telemarketing mostly uses "low rates and free shipping" to attract customers to use their products, and after the user places an order, various charges including activation fees, deposits, service fees and other different names will be incurred.
The reporter searched on the Internet and found that many deceived users reported that they could not receive the account after they received the POS machine by swiping the card, and even were directly blocked by the salesman.
In May of this year, the Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued Circular No. 8 of 2021, “Notice on Cases of Infringement of Consumers’ Legitimate Rights and Interests in Ping An Bank’s Telemarketing Products” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), which notified Ping An Bank and No. 8 Cases in which tripartite cooperative telemarketing of physical products infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
According to the "Notice", among the 60 telemarketing physical product businesses of Ping An Bank's credit card center, 53 businesses had violations of laws and regulations, accounting for 88.33%.
Telecommunications analyst Fu Liang told The Paper that at present, the management of the domestic e-marketing industry has not yet formed a complete standard, "many links have not been (completely) opened." If the management standards between relevant departments cannot be unified, it will cause chaos in e-marketing. There will be barriers to the management and rectification. Even if users find that their personal information has been leaked or traded, it is often difficult to find a "channel" for complaints and handling.
Fu Liang also pointed out that operators are the primary link to ensure that user information is not leaked. They often have their own strict operating specifications, but they cannot completely avoid the possibility of errors in the huge business branches.
Moreover, in the current era of highly developed communication technology, many personal information is in a "semi-public" state.
He believes that in various scenes of daily life, such as telephone calls and names, such information is constantly used and exchanged, it is difficult to fully quantitatively judge whether "privacy leakage" is involved.
"If there is an improper transaction of user information, no matter where it occurs, it is an illegal act."
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
Intern Wang Shiqi surging journalist Qin Shan