"Dating" becomes "making money" Beware of the hidden traps of these "off-order" apps

Source: Xinhua Viewpoint

"Sending every message requires money" "Spent more than 100,000 yuan, and can't get contact information" "To meet offline, you have to brush a 'lifetime' worth 10,000 yuan first" ... Xinhua Viewpoint"Reporter investigation found that some self-proclaimed "rapid off-order" and "mutual aid off-order" App through the platform rules "set", so that the dating process is alienated step by step "to make money", many users have become "harvested" objects, triggering a large number of suspected "induced consumption" and "emotional fraud" disputes.

Reporter / Lan Tianming

"Spent more than 100,000 yuan without a single, the result was not seen"

The reporter found that a number of "off-order" Apps with similar operating models were downloaded hugely on the app store, and some downloads exceeded 100 million times. However, such apps have been complained about by a large number of netizens on complaint platforms such as Black Cat Complaint [Complaint Portal], some of which have reached more than 1600 cases, involving "false publicity", "inducing a large number of recharges", "emotional fraud" and so on.

------------------------------------ "Just chatted on the software a few times, this woman had to run to follow me" "You don't know how active the woman above is"... The reporter found that such apps were widely promoted on short video platforms, and actors pretended to be users who had successfully made friends to "appear and speak", and the language was vulgar and the performance was exaggerated.

A woman from Xinjiang told reporters that she was "forced to make friends" by such apps. "I stumbled upon my personal video on Douyin and became a promotional advertisement for the 'Love Chat' App, and there was a line on my photo that said '30 years old, single, like to travel', but the platform did not contact me before, nor did it get my permission and authorization."

—— If you want to make friends, step by step, you have to recharge. "In order to find a partner, I spent more than 100,000 yuan on the platform and repaid more than 30,000 yuan in online loans, but I didn't see it." Mr. Liu, a 50-year-old from rural Jiangxi, was widowed and downloaded an app called "Laiyu" in the hope of finding a partner.

"After registration, many female users sent me photos and voices like robots, but it costs money to reply to text, voice, and video. I spent more than 60,000 yuan to give a gift to a female user. Mr. Liu said.

The reporter found in this type of App that the unilateral cost of male users' video calls can be as high as tens of yuan per minute, and the cost of voice calls can be as high as several yuan per minute. Male users can send gifts worth millions of dollars to female users with up to one click.

- Want to "run to the present"? Block contact details. Mr. Jiang from Zhejiang told reporters that he hoped to exchange WeChat signals and mobile phone numbers with female users on apps such as "He Fun" and "LaiYu", but whether entering letters or numbers, or informing by voice, the platform will block or interrupt the call with relevant content.

"After sending the contact information, the other party can not see, the platform will also prompt 'prohibit sending WeChat, mobile phone and address information', if sent multiple times, it may cause the account to be blocked." Mr. Jiang said.

On the complaint platform, the platform side replied to the complainant as follows: "The purpose of payment is to find and screen real active players", "pay to improve social quality, increase the interactive experience with the other party", "whether to recharge consumption is based on the premise of the user's personal will, the platform does not force or interfere"...

"Chat makes money", is it a friend or a trap?

On the one hand, such platforms induce male users to recharge step by step, and on the other hand, attract a large number of female users to participate in it through the publicity of "chat can make money".

The reporter found that many platforms attract users to "pull people's heads" by publicizing "high cashbacks" and "monthly incomes of more than 10,000". According to the reward mechanism of the relevant App, if the invited friend recharges and withdraws every time, he can get 8% to 12% of his recharge and withdrawal quota as a reward, and indicates that "there is no cap on the top".

The reporter registered a female account in the "Love Chat" App with the help of others, and the system immediately sent a relevant prompt of "reply to get cash". After communicating with multiple male users for 10 minutes, the account received about 10 yuan in points.

However, many female users reported that such Apps have "difficulty in withdrawing cash" problems such as "the man cannot withdraw cash when tipping", "the withdrawal application is not in the account after submission", "the account is not violated but is banned".

"In the past, tens of yuan were withdrawn in 'Love Chat' and arrived quickly, but recently the platform inexplicably blocked my account, on the grounds that it was diverted to third-party software, and there were more than 1600 yuan of points in the account, and there was no result in communicating with the platform many times." Ms. Liu, who works in Guangzhou, hopes that the platform can unblock the account and continue to make money on the platform.

The reporter asked a number of such Apps, the manual customer service did not provide the reporter with detailed ban standards and block duration, and the reply to the reporter was only "involving the internal rules of the platform, which cannot be informed" and "the ban is subject to the review of the audit department, there is no specific standard".

The reporter registered the male user account of the "Laiyu" App, and asked the customer service without chatting and recharging with anyone: "If the account of the opposite sex object of the chat is blocked, can the points used to brush gifts be refunded?" The App's "manual customer service" and "second return" said: the points cannot be returned, "after verification by the relevant departments, the other party's account has violations, so it is suspended."

Guo Yutao, a partner at Beijing Gefeng Law Firm, believes that on the one hand, such platforms encourage male users to recharge and brush gifts; on the other hand, they use the advantages of the platform to take advantage of the income withdrawal for female users, arbitrarily ban the account to clear the income, etc., so that the funds are precipitated on the platform to achieve "eating at both ends".

Clearing the "Hormonal Trap" on Dating Platforms

Experts said that at present, a large number of platform registration entities under the banner of "dating" are scientific and technological information companies, and most of the business scope does not have "marriage introduction services" projects. Some platforms use this to evade the supervision of civil affairs departments, and there are certain regulatory blind spots.

Guo Yutao believes that if such platforms publish false information, induce others to register, recharge, and consume, and illegally possess user funds, they are suspected of fraud.

In the view of Yan Huaizhi, associate professor of the School of Computer Science at Beijing Institute of Technology, since the app store has become an important entrance for users to obtain apps, the app store operator should further assume the responsibility of reviewing and supervising the listing of app applications.

"Before the App is on the shelves, the app store should require the app operator to provide various user agreements, and conduct an evaluation of the operating model to achieve compliance on the shelves; after the app is on the shelves, it should conveniently accept and dispose of user complaints, and feedback to the app operator, urge it to rectify, and if necessary, remove the app or even blacklist it." If app operation is suspected of violating the law and committing crimes, the app store should actively cooperate with the state network information, public security, industry and information technology and other departments to deal with and resolutely crack down on relevant illegal and criminal acts in accordance with the law. Yan Huaizhi said.

The relevant person in charge of the management association of a marriage agency in the east said that at present, the Internet has increasingly become the main channel for marriage and dating, and it is recommended that the civil affairs department further improve the industry standards and regulatory regulations for marriage matchmaking, and further standardize the management of online marriage matchmaking. "Industry organizations can make full use of the platform's 'red and black list' publicity system to guide the compliance operation of online marriage matchmaking platforms." For platforms that infringe on the rights and interests of users under the banner of stranger dating, the relevant departments should strengthen supervision and punishment. ”

Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Chinese Min University, said that when users suffer property or personal injury to the dating platform, they should actively preserve relevant evidence and require the infringer to bear the liability for compensation. If the dating platform takes advantage of the advantages of the platform, maliciously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of users, refuses to compensate and refund, the user must not swallow his anger, and should defend his legitimate rights and interests through administrative or judicial channels.