The Anhui Provincial Public Security Department attaches great importance to the "20 Measures of Anhui Public Security Organs for the People and Enterprises for the Project" to deploy special actions to optimize the online business environment. The cyber security department of the Wuhu public security organ resolutely implements it, takes the lead in "shining the sword", responds positively, and takes multiple measures at the same time to escort and help the high-quality development of enterprises.
At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the sales of various leisure snacks ushered in a wave of peaks, for some e-commerce food companies based on online channels, in addition to keeping an eye on the rising turnover, they are also paying attention to the clues of malicious complaints, hoping to hand over to the public security organs for investigation through the way of "huddling together for warmth". From the end of 2022 to the present, the Wuhu Yijiang Public Security Cyber Security Department has detected a number of cases of extortion of e-commerce food companies on the grounds that there are foreign objects in food purchased online, and one of the cases has been selected as one of the top 10 typical cases of cracking down on online rumors in the country.
Buy a lot of live bread worms online for extortion
One day in December 2022, when Wuhu police found 24-year-old Wei in a house in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, his head quickly lowered. After graduating from university in 2021, in order to make money conveniently and quickly, Wei thought of adulterating foreign substances in the food he bought online to achieve the purpose of blackmailing merchants.
Starting in March 2022, Wei has purchased food from multiple stores, spoiled the food purchased in the early stage and placed it in the purchased food, blackmailing the merchant on the grounds of food safety, and said, "If you don't solve it, I will complain." As of November 2023, he has committed a total of thirty or forty crimes, making a profit of more than 30,000 yuan.
A person from a food e-commerce company told reporters that for the normal protection of consumers' rights, in accordance with the "Food Safety Law" and the company's internal claim process and standards, it can be dealt with in a timely manner. However, at the expense of bag dropping, adulteration and false complaints and other means to carry out malicious claims, the harm to the enterprise is still relatively large, they have encountered a person who asked for compensation 79 times, which has caused the company to be troubled. After purchasing the goods, such claimants replace the normal goods with counterfeit and shoddy products, or deliberately "modify" the goods involved, such as stuffing hair into takeaway food and putting insects, in order to complain to the market supervision department and threaten the merchants.
"Bugs, stones, hair are the most common types of foreign bodies. The relevant person in charge of the legal department of a well-known food e-commerce company in Anhui told reporters that at the end of 2022, they received a complaint that they found bugs in the meat floss they bought, demanded certain economic claims, and threatened the merchant to post the relevant photos online. "At that time, we contacted experts, suppliers, and manufacturers, and decided that this was not possible, so we chose to call the police. The person said that this is also the first time they have sought help from the Wuhu Yijiang network security department. After the police intervened, they found that he had purchased a large number of live bread worms online and stuffed them into the food produced by major enterprises to extort profits.
Not only that, but in order to cause serious quality problems in the goods and thus claim compensation, some suspects also purchased a large amount of professional equipment. The reporter noticed that at the beginning of 2023, the Harbin police cracked a malicious claim case for online shopping, in which the gang members used punching machines, glue, electric drills, vacuum machines and other tools to place foreign objects in the packaging of food purchased online, and then re-sealed them, with a cumulative illegal profit of more than 80 yuan.
Sometimes, knowing that there is no problem with the product, why do some merchants choose to compensate? Some e-commerce business people told reporters that this is to take advantage of the psychology of merchants who want to deal with it as soon as possible to avoid affecting store sales and calming people. In many cases, these claimants tend to be well versed in the law.
The reporter learned that Article 148 of the Food Safety Law stipulates that if consumers are damaged due to food that does not meet food safety standards, they can demand compensation from the producer or operator for ten times the price or three times the loss, and if the amount is less than 1,000 yuan, the compensation is 1,000 yuan. They often only ask for a few hundred to 1,000 yuan in a single transaction, and if the merchant reports the case, they will generally be treated as a shopping dispute, which does not meet the standard of filing a case.
The police intervened in a number of cases
These seemingly small things are a headache for businesses. On March 27, 2023, a food company reported that multiple accounts requested refunds on the grounds of food safety issues after purchasing the company's food, and the company made three refunds, totaling more than 2,000 yuan, but it was found that it was the same collection account in the refund, so it was suspected that someone was extorting the company on the grounds of food safety.
Although the amount of money involved in the report was not high, after a large number of police collusion investigations, strange things were discovered. The investigation of the Internet Security Brigade of the Yijiang Branch of the Wuhu Municipal Public Security Bureau found that the actual user of the account was Liu Mouxian, and through the expansion of the relationship between the characters and the analysis of the flow of funds, another suspect Li, found that Liu Mouxian and Li were "post-00" couples, and the relationship between the two was extremely close.
In the process of penetrating the online activities and capital flow of the two people, the police found that the victims included a number of food e-commerce companies, and sorted out more than 50 yuan of funds suspected of being involved in the case. On April 1, 2023, after having sufficient evidence, the Yijiang police arrested the suspects Liu Mouxian and Li outside the province, and found that the third person, Liu Mourun's sister Liu Mouyu, was involved in the case.
Combined with the preliminary investigation, it was found that the three suspects had a clear division of labor and overlapping functions. Among them, the suspects Liu Mouxian and Li Mouxian first bought food on an APP and mailed it to Bijie City, Guizhou Province and Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and the suspect Liu Mouyu was responsible for receiving the goods in Changzhou.
Suspects Liu Mourun and Liu Mouyu took photos and posted on social platforms, and finally sent photos or videos to the merchants, posted screenshots to intimidate, and cooperated with the words to blackmail. If the merchant raised an objection to the compensation, Liu Mouxian and Li Mouxian threatened to report to 12315, not delete the post, expose it, etc., and blackmail the merchant. Many merchants have no choice but to compromise and "compensate" them.
As the police intervened, the truth emerged. At present, the three suspects in the case have taken criminal coercive measures, and the case has been transferred for prosecution, and this online extortion case has also been selected as one of the top 10 typical cases of the Ministry of Public Security's national crackdown on and rectification of online rumors.
Help enterprises reduce direct economic losses by more than one million
Such cyber-related crimes often face many problems such as low reporting amounts and difficulty in filing cases, and in fact, in the actual investigation process, the police have also invested a lot of energy. However, in the eyes of some food e-commerce companies, if this kind of problem is not dealt with, it will cause great harm to the enterprise and the industry, which will greatly affect the brand and reputation of the enterprise.
Huang Yang, head of the Cyber Security Brigade of the Yijiang Branch of the Wuhu Municipal Public Security Bureau, told reporters that when investigating and handling such online extortion cases, there are some concerns from the case-handling units to the specific case-handling personnel, because the judicial practice of civil rights protection and the determination of criminal extortion are actually very blurred, and if the suspect cannot get a confession, the whole case may not be able to go forward. Therefore, the police have always maintained an attitude of bold speculation and careful verification, carefully screened the relevant clues provided by the company, investigated and collected evidence and fixed the evidence, excluded the reasonable rights protection of consumers, and took practical actions to govern the network environment.
In July this year, dozens of enterprises established the "Food Industry Brand Rights Protection Alliance" in Wuhu to jointly resist illegal and criminal activities such as malicious claims, expressing full trust in Wuhu Public Security's work to maintain corporate reputation and image. In September 2023, Wuhu's first "Cyber Security Online Police Office" was put into trial operation in a food company, further unblocking the channels for notification and early warning, alarm for help, and communication services. The reporter learned that as of December 2023, the malicious complaint claims against the company have decreased by 40% year-on-year, reducing the direct economic loss of the company by more than 2 million yuan per year, and the indirect loss is even more immeasurable.
With the intensive introduction of policies such as national protection and support for the development of private enterprises and severe crackdown on cybercrime, malicious extortion and other illegal acts are becoming the focus of public security organs at all levels. Huang Yang also said that they hope to take the company's case as an opportunity to send a message that cyber-related crimes that infringe on the rights and interests of enterprises will be "cracked down on when they show up", and that when other companies encounter situations where their interests are infringed, they can also directly report to the police. In the next step, they will also pay attention to the gray industry chain behind malicious extortion through online sales of tutorials and pictures, and continue to maintain a fair and honest business consumption environment.
Source: Anhui Police