Thousands of calls can be made every day, customers will be communicated according to the way they are spoken, customers can be screened according to the results of the conversation... With the continuous development of AI (artificial intelligence) technology, a tool called "AI telephony robot" has emerged in recent years, which is often used by merchants for telemarketing and screening target customers. However, the Nandu reporter's investigation found that behind some AI telephone robots, a gray and black industrial chain has been derived. Some people are selling telemarketing robot products while providing so-called "high-quality phone bills", and a large amount of private data, including phone numbers, is suspected of being leaked. At the same time, many disclosed cases also show that AI telephone robots are easy to be used by criminals to divert traffic and screen fraud targets. Experts believe that relevant departments should take multiple measures to strengthen supervision, especially for the behavior of bad AI telemarketing should be specially managed as soon as possible.
Robots can make thousands of calls a day
Outbound numbers can be attributed
The so-called "AI telemarketing", that is, the use of artificial intelligence robots to make calls, simulate the voice tone of real people to communicate with customers to respond, to achieve the purpose of product sales. More advanced robots can also analyze the data of customers through communication content and accurately screen out valuable customers.
Nandu reporter search found that at present, there are many merchants selling so-called AI telephone robots, and many claim that products can be used for finance, education, real estate and other promotional sales industries to quickly screen target customers.
A salesman at a company that provides AI telemarketing services told reporters that one of their robots can make 1,000 calls a day and has a connection rate of about 30%. "The bot will communicate with customers according to preset words, and then filter out multiple types of customers, and the data will be pushed directly to your phone." The salespersons say they currently offer packages at a variety of price points, ranging from 1,880 yuan to 28,880 yuan. For example, the package priced at 1880 yuan contains 3 telephone robots, and the buyer has a half-year life, but the price does not include the dialed call.
The employee told reporters that in order to prevent the phone from being rejected, the home of the outbound number they provided can be set as a first- and second-tier city in China, "once you change one, the number will not be repeated, and there is no worry about being blocked." Telephone connection status and customer information can be viewed in the system background. According to the information provided by the other party, the reporter inquired that its company is located in Hubei Province, which is a small technology enterprise registered at the end of 2020.
The background management page of the "AI telemarketing" of a certain enterprise.
Reporter Investigation:
Privacy data is packaged and sold with telebots
As a marketing tool, AI telebots believe that many merchants believe that they have indeed improved the efficiency of customer acquisition. However, the practice of AI telemarketing is controversial and may cause harassment to users.
Mr. Chen, a citizen, complained to reporters: "At most, I have received seven or eight strange phone calls a day, all of which are the voices of robots, repeatedly asking me questions." At the same time, Nandu reporters investigated and learned that some AI telephone robots may involve some black and gray industries, suspected of infringing on user privacy, and even becoming a tool and means of online fraud.
In the reporter's secret interview, a salesman said that he could provide "local high-quality telephone bills" (that is, customer information) for dialing and selling in order to win customers. "The high-quality telephone bills we provide are some local corporate legal persons, car owners and homeowners, and the telemarketing effect will be better." The reporter asked about the source of these words, and the other party said: "Extracted from other data platform Apps."
It is understood that such telemarketing customer information is frequently traded underground, and criminals generally call it "material", which is labeled according to the field of obtaining information and the industry of the target customer, such as "shareholder material", "education material" and "Baoma material" for others to carry out accurate sales or fraud. A "material" seller told Nandu reporter that its supply has two types of supplies, "AI material" and "hand wave material", all in various fields. "The price of 10,000 copies of AI is 150 yuan to 200 yuan, less than 10,000 copies are 2 cents per piece, and 2 yuan of the hand wave is 2 yuan a piece." He further explained that the "AI material" is obtained by crawling through the program, and the "hand wave material" is manually screened and provides more accurate information. In addition, he also provides a telephone robot: "I will open an account for you directly, and the robot will charge 2 for 2 cents for a call." ”
According to CCTV, the police in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, recently arrested an online fraud gang involving many parts of the country, which used AI robots to make 17 million calls and obtain more than 800,000 valid customer phones, draining a large number of overseas fraud gangs.
Expert Voice:
Strengthen governance in response to bad AI telemarketing
It is understood that in July 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and other thirteen departments jointly issued a notice of the "Special Action Plan for Comprehensive Rectification of Harassing Telephone Calls". The special action around the "Plan" lasted for one year, focusing on the rectification of industry marketing, malicious harassment and illegal and criminal harassment calls, while emphasizing the crackdown on illegal acquisition of personal information and cutting off the chain of interests in harassing phone calls.
"Telemarketing itself may be suspected of infringing on consumer rights and interests, and 'AI telemarketing' on this basis needs to be further regulated." Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Internet Society of China, told Nandu reporters that bad "AI telemarketing" needs to be comprehensively managed and specially regulated.
In Hu Gang's view, telemarketing itself may infringe on citizens' privacy rights, and the act of "AI telemarketing" sellers providing customer information is suspected of infringing on citizens' personal information rights. "Both the Civil Code and the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law stipulate that no organization or individual may send messages to others without their consent, infringing on the tranquility of private life. No organization or individual may illegally collect, use, process, or transmit other people's personal information, nor must they illegally buy, sell, provide, or disclose other people's personal information, and if the circumstances are serious, it is suspected of constituting the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law. ”
Hu Gang also believes that the behavior of some telemarketers to record phone calls in order to analyze data, if they do not inform and obtain consumers' consent, also infringe on consumers' right to know and choose, and may also infringe on consumers' privacy rights and personal information rights.
How to regulate the "AI telemarketing" behavior? Hu Gang put forward five suggestions: First, strengthen the communication and coordination of network information, public security, market supervision and other departments, comprehensively use administrative guidance, administrative interviews, administrative investigations, administrative penalties and other measures to achieve both symptoms and root causes; second, give play to industry associations, timely introduce industry self-discipline norms and industry standards, and improve industry autonomy; third, build the responsibility of AI telemarketing technology providers, strengthen compliance construction, and achieve source governance; fourth, compact AI telemarketing platforms and corporate responsibilities, and guide and urge platform enterprises to take the lead in setting an example The fifth is to unite the strength of consumers, better perform the duties of the Consumer Association, improve the public interest litigation system, explore the establishment of a consumer class action system, and implement a punitive compensation system.
Nandu, N video reporter Wei Zhixin Chen Jiesheng intern Chen Jiaqi