Is "Sending Models" a Good Job?
Han Yang Yan Yili
Recently, a profession called "post modelling" has emerged quietly.
To put it simply, the main workflow of "Send Models for Shooting" is that the merchant sends the product to the model. After the model shoots the buyer's show and praises it, the package is returned as it is. The merchant promises to refund the amount of the product and pay the model a certain amount of remuneration.
So, is this "send model" model legal?
What legal risks exist?
1 Suspected of false propaganda by using "send model"
Li is a merchant on an e-commerce platform. He mainly sells a certain brand of women's clothing. Recently, the sales of his store have decreased, while the sales of another store on the platform that also sells the brand of women's clothing have surged.
Li found that the store had a high score, but when he clicked on the comments of a hot-selling product it sold, he found that many of the positive reviews were exactly the same, the copywriting was the same, and even the renderings of the customers trying on the clothes were the same.
In real life, such situations are not uncommon.
Merchants on the e-commerce platform invite “post-photo models” to fabricate transaction facts. “Post-photo models” put on clothes sent by merchants for free to take photos and post false comments to increase product sales, store ratings, credit points or transaction amount, etc. Online store sales and rankings, thereby attracting more customers.
This may constitute false advertising, which is expressly prohibited by the Electronic Commerce Act.
According to the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions, traditional false propaganda has four characteristics: false propaganda belongs to market competition and occurs in the process of commercial activities; the main body should be a commercial operator who provides services or sells products; false propaganda involves services or The objective elements of the product, such as quality, performance, expiration date, etc.; false publicity can have misleading effects.
With the diversity of Internet transactions, the scope of the above-mentioned false propaganda is obviously too narrow, and the establishment of false propaganda only needs to reach a high probability.
Article 8 of my country's Anti-Unfair Competition Law clearly stipulates that operators shall not make false or misleading commercial promotions, deceive and mislead consumers about the performance, functions, quality, sales status, user evaluations, and honors of their products. .
The above-mentioned "posting photos" behavior is essentially swiping orders to get good reviews. The merchants use improper means to interfere with user evaluations, which is false propaganda. From this point of view, merchants who have "posting photos" are suspected of breaking the law.
Selling fake buyer shows by "posting models" is actually a false advertising behavior, which not only damages the rights and interests of consumers, but also constitutes unfair competition for other operators.
Similarly, if you know that others are swiping orders and still assist, you are also suspected of violating relevant laws and regulations such as my country's e-commerce law and the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions".
Judge reminds
I have to admit that there is a certain degree of concealment in this kind of "post-photography" behavior. Most of the "post-photography models" use personal accounts, so it is difficult for regulators to find out the specific situation.
However, this kind of false propaganda has severely hit other businesses in economic activities, seriously disrupted the business order, and misled consumers at the same time.
If consumers encounter a large number of stores with the same product reviews and the same copywriting when shopping online, they can report to the e-commerce platform in time.
E-commerce platforms should also take relevant responsibilities, strengthen management, and force merchants to self-discipline by establishing reporting mechanisms.
In addition, if consumers find suspected “sending photos” to swipe orders, they can immediately keep the pictures and report them to the platform, requesting the platform to verify.
2 The "part-time brushing" scam has been upgraded again
In March of this year, Ms. Wu swiped an advertisement on a short video platform for recruiting "post-photography models", which stated: As long as you become a "post-photography model" and put on the clothes sent for free and take a few photos, you can get the 50 yuan to 80 yuan.
Ms. Wu was very tempted, and then got in touch with the other party.
Ms. Wu was told that by completing the task, she would not only get the qualifications for sending photos, but also get cash withdrawals and rebates from the platform.
The prerequisite for completing the task is the need to transfer money and advance money.
However, when Ms. Wu completed the task, she encountered new problems.
The other party set up a series of tasks. In order to complete these tasks, Ms. Wu needs to continue to transfer money or advance money.
In the end, Ms. Wu transferred a total of 37,388 yuan, but at this time, the platform still showed that the task failed.
Most of these "send model" scams are aimed at young women who need part-time jobs. They use their psychology to make money from part-time jobs to lure them into being fooled.
According to the relevant provisions of my country's criminal law, the crime of fraud refers to the act of defrauding a large amount of public and private property by means of deception for the purpose of illegal possession.
This kind of "sending model" scam is actually no longer a simple act of brushing orders. The other party's purpose of defrauding the model of money has constituted a crime.
According to Article 266 of the Criminal Law, whoever defrauds public or private property, if the amount involved is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also or only be fined; if the amount involved is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to three years Fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years and a fine; if the amount is particularly huge or there are other particularly serious circumstances, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and a fine or confiscation of property.
If this Law provides otherwise, the provisions shall be followed.
Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Fraud clearly stipulates that if the fraudulent public or private property reaches the prescribed relevant amount standard, and one of the following circumstances occurs, the criminal law may be subject to the second hundredth criminal law. The provisions of Article 66 shall be severely punished as appropriate: defrauding an unspecified majority by sending text messages, making phone calls, or publishing false information through the Internet, radio and television, newspapers and magazines, etc.
The "send model" scam is actually an upgraded version of the common "part-time scam".
While the victim is waiting for the shipment, the scammer induces the victim to make small transfers and promises quick rebates. Then the scammer asks the victim to repeatedly brush the bills and transfers to conduct the final fraud. information, and defrauding an unspecified majority”, if the amount defrauded reaches the relevant amount standard, it constitutes the crime of fraud.
Judge reminds
With the prosperity and development of the Internet, the economic activities it carries are also more diverse, and the related legal relationships are more complicated.
Especially during the epidemic, many people work from home and have more time to do part-time online part-time jobs, and criminals take advantage of this time.
Participants in Internet transactions should also keep pace with the times, continuously improve their awareness, and carefully distinguish various types of advertisements in the complex network environment. ” advertising and publicity must be vigilant.
If you encounter such a scam, consumers should not swallow their anger because the amount of the deceived is low. Repeated concessions will only allow criminals to escape justice, and more victims will appear. It is necessary to fix the evidence in time, and keep the transfer records and chat screenshots before the transaction. Wait for evidence, and if you find that you have been deceived, take immediate measures for help.
3 "Job Registration" Causes Personal Information Leakage
In the "send photo model" scam, criminals may use the "send photo model" mode to induce others to swipe their bills, while stealing other people's information. The public may be troubled by harassing phone calls, or they may encounter telecommunication fraud and routine loans. , extortion and other vicious incidents, resulting in personal and property safety violations.
Ms. Chen saw an advertisement for a part-time job while swiping a short video. Then she added the other party's WeChat and downloaded an APP to swipe the order.
In order to complete the task, Ms. Chen advanced 3 orders totaling more than 10,000 yuan, but she later found out that she could not get back the principal and commission. The other party said that she needed Ms. Chen to provide photos of her ID card and bank card to complete the task.
In desperation, Ms. Chen sent her personal information to the other party, but ultimately failed to recover the funds she advanced.
Similar scams are not uncommon, and some criminals require the parties to fill out a detailed "membership registration form" before swiping the bill. This information even includes ID number, ID address, current residence address, person, spouse, parents Phone, IP address location screenshots, location screenshots on QQ or WeChat, etc. When the parties fill in all the information on the "member registration form" without reservation, personal information has been leaked.
According to Article 1034 of the Civil Code, personal information refers to various information recorded electronically or in other ways that can identify a specific natural person alone or in combination with other information, including the natural person's name, date of birth, ID number, Biometric information, address, phone number, email address, health information, whereabouts information, etc.
According to the relevant provisions of my country's Personal Information Protection Law, the core principle of personal information processing is "inform-consent", that is, to obtain individual consent under the premise of full notification, and the scope of information collection should be limited to the smallest scope to achieve the purpose of processing.
Criminals use swiping to ask victims for personal information, such as a screenshot of the geographic location of their IP address, a screenshot of the location on QQ or WeChat, etc., which obviously violates the relevant provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law.
If you collect and sell personal information through fraudulent behavior, you may also be held criminally liable.
Article 253 of the Criminal Law stipulates the content of the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information, that is, selling or providing citizens' personal information to others in violation of relevant state regulations. A fine; if the circumstances are particularly serious, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and a fine.
Whoever steals or illegally obtains citizens' personal information by other means shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph.
Judge reminds
The general public should stay away from the scam of "posting models for photos", pay attention to the security of personal information, and do not easily disclose important personal information such as bank card numbers, account passwords, ID numbers, SMS verification codes to others.
Once you find that your identity information has been leaked, you should change your account number, change your important password, keep relevant evidence, and immediately call the police to prevent the further harm of personal information leakage.
(Author: People's Court of Shijingshan District, Beijing)