Someone pretends to be a minor to get benefits and someone cheats money on the grounds of assisting with refunds
Beware of "minor refunds" being used as gray products
Our reporter Han Dandong
Our intern Wang Yitian
The anchor "He Tang" is not very popular, but he has been frequently recharged during live broadcasts recently.
The live broadcast platform where "Crane Tang" is located has a rule: after users spend money to recharge the "Captain" in the live broadcast room, they can get physical gifts sent by the anchor.
Not long ago, she received a system prompt during the live broadcast, "Some users spend 198 yuan per month to open the 'Captain'." The delighted "Crane Tang" immediately prepared hand-painted greeting cards, seals, and ornaments for the "Captain" After waiting for 8 kinds of gifts, package them and mail them to the address provided by the "Captain".
But after the other party received the goods, she actually received a notice of a minor's refund application - and the "captain" initially told "He Tang" that he was an adult and had a regular job.
In May of this year, the Central Civilization Office, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and the State Internet Information Office issued the "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Rewarding and Strengthening the Protection of Minors" to rectify the problem of anomie in online live rewarding, and explicitly prohibit unauthorized Adults participate in the live broadcast and reward.
According to relevant laws and regulations, the act of rewarding a minor does not have the effect of a civil legal act and should be refunded.
But what makes "He Tang" puzzled is that the consumer gift he received is obviously an adult, why can the other party initiate a refund application as a minor?
The experience of "Crane Tang" is not an exception.
Many anchors on the live broadcast platform claimed that they had received refund applications from minors, involving amounts ranging from a few yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan, and even some anchors received several large refunds from the same unidentified sponsor. adults.
A recent investigation by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" found that behind minors' refunds, some adults pretended to be minors for malicious refunds in order to obtain the benefits of the anchors, and then resell the gifts given by the anchors for profit.
There are also some people who are eyeing the "business opportunity" for minors to refund their money. On the surface, they provide services to assist minors in refunding their money, but they secretly use the excuses of "data fee" and "prepayment" to defraud money.
Some people exploit the mechanism loopholes
Receive a gift request a refund
Fang Hua, from Cixi, Zhejiang, is an anchor on a live broadcast platform. He was also asked by a minor for a refund after sending a gift.
In fact, the other party may be an adult.
He later learned that someone had exploited the loophole in the "minor refund mechanism".
"Live gift giving does not require real-name authentication, as long as you recharge your account, you can send gifts, and you will need to perform real-name authentication before applying for a minor's refund afterwards," Fang Hua said.
Fang Hua found that after some people received gifts, they sold them through some second-hand trading platforms, and many of the buyers were minors.
Xiao Li, a high school student from Langfang, Hebei Province, once bought a "gift that only captains can have".
Xiao Li is keen on watching live broadcasts on weekdays, and often saves money to give gifts to his favorite anchors.
He wants to join the host's private group, communicate directly with the host, and receive exclusive gifts from the host, but the threshold for joining a private group is very high. Not only does he have to spend a lot of energy to watch the live broadcast, but he also spends thousands of yuan to buy gifts for the host. .
Limited by financial resources and time, Xiao Li could only stay away, but he "coveted" the photo of the anchor's exclusive signature blessing.
Once, when Xiao Li browsed a second-hand trading platform, he found that someone was selling autographed photos of his favorite anchors for 120 yuan each.
He immediately placed an order and bought one, and checked that it was genuine when it arrived.
In addition to being happy, Xiao Li is also wondering: each group member will only receive one autographed photo, and true fans usually use it for collection, but why are there so many autographed photos on the Internet?
Later, he saw someone on the platform openly selling the "captain" benefits of some anchors, a set of 138 yuan, including assembled standing cards, anchor badges and mugs.
Someone benefits and someone loses.
According to the revenue rules of some live broadcast platforms, the gifts received by the anchor will be converted into golden hamsters, and the anchor will withdraw cash based on the number of golden hamsters.
After a minor initiates a refund, the existing golden hamster in the anchor's account will be deducted immediately, and some people will even be deducted as a negative amount.
An anchor named "Momoko" was asked to refund 140,000 yuan, and the physical gifts sent out were also in vain.
Zhou Xuliang, director of Beijing Guanling Law Firm, analyzed that some people used the "minor refund" mechanism for gray operations.
This mechanism is originally a mechanism to protect minors. If it is abused, it will not only damage the rights and interests of minors, but also cause physical and mental harm and property damage to the anchor.
More seriously, this behavior may also be suspected of fraud.
These people subjectively have the purpose of illegally occupying the anchor's welfare, and objectively make the anchor form a wrong understanding by making up or concealing facts, and deliver property based on the wrong understanding, which meets the constituent elements of the crime of fraud.
Help with refund traps
A little careless, people and money are empty
Among the many links for refunds to minors, applying for a refund after collecting gifts is only one link.
The reporter's investigation found that there is a group active on some online platforms. They specialize in helping minors to refund money. Most of them contact buyers through private chat, and then switch platforms to conduct transactions.
A person familiar with the matter revealed that the operation mode of this group varies according to the application requirements of different platforms, but all require buyers to provide the identity information and payment records of minors, and then set up corresponding "refund agreement samples" according to different platforms. , the charging standard is generally one-tenth of the refund amount applied for.
If the information provided by the buyer is not complete, they will provide a full set of minors' information "intimately", and the price of a set is 450 yuan to 600 yuan.
In the "Minor Refund Bar" of "Baidu Tieba", many people posted a post asking how to apply for a minor's refund.
There are a lot of threads below these posts saying, "Add me and help you get your money back."
The reporter noticed a post titled "Reporting a Liar", a friend "life1" complained about his experience of being deceived.
In June of this year, the bar friend posted a post asking for help because he would not apply for a minor refund. A netizen named "Lianchuang Yunzhi" left a message saying that he could assist him in the application.
After "life1" adds the other party as a friend, the other party will charge a "data fee" of 600 yuan, saying that this amount is a fixed fee and needs to be paid in advance.
After "life1" pays, the counterparty asks for identity information, recharge records and other relevant materials, and sends a "refund agreement template", requiring it to attach an electronic signature.
At this point, the assisted refund service is coming to an end.
The other party told "life1" to wait patiently, and the refund will be successful within 14 working days.
But on the 14th day, when "life1" found the other party and asked about the progress, it was told that the other party's number had been frozen and could not be operated for the time being.
Only then did "life1" realize that he had been deceived.
The reporter searched with the keyword "Lianchuang Yunzhi" and found that the user had changed his name.
The owner of the bar told reporters that assisting minors in refunding money is generally to help minors' families find evidence of their children's consumption, such as time points, chat records with classmates, etc.
If you communicate with the platform many times, although the process is cumbersome, the probability of success is high.
Since there are often friends who are deceived, the bar owner asks the order taker to release the relevant qualifications and identity information for the record in a timely manner to prevent the bar friends from being deceived, but as of now, no one has reported to the bar owner.
"It is understandable to assist minors with refunds, but the starting point should be to serve and protect minors, not to make money from it," said Ye Lin, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China.
Zhou Xuliang analyzed that helping adults refund money under the guise of minors' identity information may face civil, administrative or even criminal liability.
Adults fraudulently obtain refunds from the platform by fabricating facts, which constitutes fraud, and will be subject to administrative penalties or even criminal penalties according to the amount and circumstances of the case.
The platform strengthens audit verification
Correctly guide minors
In Ye Lin's view, the starting point of the "minor refund" mechanism is good, but in the actual operation process, some platforms have problems such as confusion of subjects, lax review, and different standards, which have led to the proliferation of related gray industries, making many parties rights have been violated.
"The live broadcast platform has loopholes in the identity verification mechanism of minors. According to relevant regulations, minors are strictly prohibited from participating in live broadcast rewards. However, adults can use the information of minors to refund money, which just exposes the live broadcast platform's verification of the identity of minors. A loophole in the mechanism." Zhou Xuliang said.
To this end, Zhou Xuliang suggested strengthening supervision: improve the identity review system for minors, raise the threshold for users, implement real-name registration, and close the reward function for minors’ accounts; strengthen family supervision, advocate social supervision, and parents should lead by example and jointly supervise with schools Education, and set a good example for children; improve and implement laws and regulations such as the Internet Protection Regulations for Minors; strengthen industry self-discipline, increase the level of attention paid to minor users by live broadcast platforms, and strengthen standardized guidance for minor users’ operations.
Zhao Zhan, a lawyer from Beijing Yunjia Law Firm, told reporters that according to the Cybersecurity Law and other laws, live streaming platforms should require users to register with their real names.
In practice, different live streaming platforms have different practices in real-name registration, resulting in loopholes that can be exploited.
It can improve the face recognition technology, and strengthen the review and verification of the user's identity information during registration.
Zhou Xuliang also reminded network anchors to consciously resist behaviors that violate laws and regulations, damage network civilization, violate network ethics, and harm network harmony, actively discourage minors from participating in rewards, and purify the network environment.