A network customer showed that the original price of 131 yuan products, after using various coupons, the actual price was only 1 yuan. (Web Screenshot)
During the "6·18" e-commerce festival, the major platforms have rich marketing activities, and promotional means such as zero-hour spikes, coupons, discount coupons, and new cashbacks have emerged in an endless stream. Organic and sensitive consumers found that taking advantage of the platform's vigorous promotion and superimposing various coupons, they could buy valuable goods at low prices or even zero yuan. As a result, some people with ulterior motives specialize in studying the loopholes of e-commerce and the rules of coupons, pull people on social media, establish "wool groups", organize the purchase of empty e-commerce promotional products, and then sell them for profit.
What's more, during the P2P outbreak in previous years, he applied for loans on major platforms and refused to repay debts after maturity. While playing a game of hide-and-seek with collectors, they are expecting these online lending platforms to quickly liquidate, so that their debts may also be written off. This kind of behavior is also known as "picking up the mouth".
In the era of mobile Internet, whether it is an e-commerce platform, an online lending platform, an online car-hailing platform, or a community group buying platform, it has received strong support from capital and huge financing. In the initial period, in order to attract customers, these platforms have carried out large subsidies and promotional activities, and zero-yuan taxis, zero-yuan grocery shopping and even zero-yuan shopping have become the bait for these platforms to attract customers. However, due to the participation of these people with ulterior motives, the preferential treatment of the platform is occupied by a small number of people, and it is impossible for ordinary people to be evenly exposed. The capital "first induce, then harvest" routine has also encountered challenges.
In this game of harvesting and counter-harvesting, each side is not just, and it is possible to lose both. Only fair competition between e-commerce platforms and not taking short-term promotions to attract customers can make the Internet economy stable and far-reaching and inclusive to the public.
All kinds of coupons are rushed, and the e-commerce platform strictly prevents the "wool group"
This year's "6.18" e-commerce promotion festival came a little early. On June 1, major platforms have begun to kill at zero hour, and since then, various coupons and full discounts have been released. Wang Hao (pseudonym), who was waiting in front of his mobile phone, was in a hurry and had purchased more than a dozen items in less than three days.
Surprisingly, after these goods arrived one after another, he took pictures of these goods one by one and hung them on another online platform to sell. "One in and one out, in less than a week, I earned more than 6,000 yuan." Wang Hao said so.
Look closely at these goods he bought, a vacuum cleaner market price of more than 600 yuan, but he used the platform's full reduction coupons, pull new coupons, and the seller's discount coupons, after a deduction, the actual price is only 30 yuan. An air purifier market price of more than 1200 yuan, he changed a mobile phone number login, the use of various coupons, a deduction down the actual price of only 90 yuan, as well as bed four-piece set, electric fan, mini washing machine, etc., the actual price is less than 50 yuan. What is even more surprising is that the market price of a microwave oven is more than 400 yuan, and he only spent 3 yuan to get it.
Wang Hao opened an online store on another e-commerce platform, and he hung up these hot products in the online store, giving a 20% discount, still much cheaper than the market price, and quickly sold.
This set of operation processes is not surprising in Wang Hao's circle, and many people are arbitraged in this way. They call themselves the "Wool Party", participate in various "wool groups", download various coupons, and take advantage of promotional loopholes to steal wool from e-commerce platforms.
During the promotion festival, e-commerce platforms issue various coupons in order to attract as many customers as possible and make these customers long-term customers. In this way, the long-term effect of the coupon will be revealed, and the customer can also contribute long-term value to the platform. I don't think about it, the participants of the "wool group", take a handful and leave, the e-commerce platform hurts the brain for this.
Wang Hao said that he was just a "chopper" at first. After the first online shopping took advantage, Wang Hao became a stable customer of the e-commerce platform, and wanted to buy something as soon as he arrived at the promotion festival, whether he needed it or not, as long as it seemed that the discount was more, he wanted to buy one. This addictive psychology makes him contribute thousands of yuan to the e-commerce platform every promotional festival. The wife saw that there were a lot of unwanted goods piled up in the room and blamed him.
In the face of accusations from his family, Wang Hao went to the second-hand website to sell the goods he bought. After communicating with the buyer, I found that I had been "killed" by the e-commerce platform, and those goods that looked like a large discount were temporarily adjusted by the e-commerce platform to the original price, and sometimes, the e-commerce promotion festival sold more expensive than usual.
Wang Hao, who gradually regained his rationality, began to study coupons for e-commerce platforms. He found that in the Internet forum, there are always people who publish some loopholes in the e-commerce platform and release coupon links, attracting people to join the group and go to the e-commerce platform to buy goods at low prices. As a result, he entered the circle and became an online "picker".
At the beginning, Wang Hao received most of the orders he received were goods with the wrong price on the e-commerce platform. For example, in a certain year's promotional festival, the original price of a microwave oven on an e-commerce platform was 399 yuan, which was marked by the staff as 39.9 yuan. The circle friends who learned of the loophole were moved by the wind and placed more than 20,000 orders in just half an hour. The seller had to deliver the goods with tears, and after the inventory returned to zero, he could only apologize and ask netizens to take the initiative to withdraw the order, otherwise he would be punished by the platform deduction. In those years, the "pick-up customers" were also targeted by Apple headphones and popular air tickets because of the wrong price, and the sellers suffered heavy losses.
Later, the platform strengthened the audit, and the e-commerce loophole with the wrong price was almost extinct. The pickers had to find another way out, and coupons became their new breakthrough point. In order to pull new, e-commerce platforms often send a coupon to a mobile phone registration number, if a mobile phone number is registered on social media to pull another mobile phone number, the first mobile phone number will get a new coupon again. After multiple offers are stacked, the actual price of the product will be very favorable.
Wang Hao obtained coupons under the guidance of the "wool group" leader and eventually bought very cheap goods. After the e-commerce platform understands the operation methods of the "wool group", it constantly updates the measures and uses technical means to prevent the "wool group" from collectively placing orders. During the "Double 11" period in 2017, some "wool groups" were suspected of using discount loopholes to collectively place orders for gold products on an e-commerce platform. The platform found abnormalities through background monitoring and took emergency measures, some orders were recovered during express delivery, and other orders were canceled. On the day of "Double 11" last year, Alibaba's security intelligent risk control system intercepted a total of 5.9 billion malicious requests and repelled 18.87 million scalper sweeps. The relevant person in charge of risk control of Jingdong Group also pointed out that during the "6.18" period this year, the platform will strengthen risk control and more accurately identify and combat the "wool party". Once found, the platform will cancel and recall the order and restrict suspicious accounts from participating in the promotion.
At 00:00 on June 10, when Wang Hao placed an order on a platform in an attempt to "pick up" 20 pairs of basketball shoes at a low price, he found that the platform prohibited him from placing orders and payments, and after 3 hours, the platform banned his account. He called to ask why his account was blocked, and the platform told him that the account was adjacent to or the same as the delivery address of multiple other accounts, and it was suspected that he had organized an order to obtain subsidies, so he was banned, and many other accounts were also blocked. After getting this reply, Wang Hao's heart was half cold: "It seems that the platform has recognized my routine, and I should also stop it." He said helplessly.
The leader of the group becomes a moth and resells cheap goods on the platform
At the beginning of June, Qiu Lin (pseudonym), the "leader" of a community group buying platform, was removed from the platform, and his convenience store could no longer operate as a pick-up point for community group buying. Moreover, he also received a letter from the platform's lawyer asking him to provide a relevant customer directory to check the true whereabouts of the original goods. Qiu Lin quickly paid a sum of money to the community group purchase. He knew that if he continued to investigate, he would certainly not be able to hide it.
In November last year, Qiu Lin applied to become the "head of the group" of a community group buying platform, responsible for receiving goods and pulling new ones. This community group buying platform is a latecomer to this industry and urgently needs to open up the market in Tianjin. Although it entered late, it relied on a number of well-known capital companies to obtain financing. With the support of capital, the community group buying platform recruits a large number of community leaders in various communities on the one hand, and on the other hand, attracts customers to place orders with huge subsidies. For a time, preferential labels such as buying eggs for zero yuan and buying vegetables for one penny flew everywhere, which aroused the attention of all walks of life.
Previously, Qiu Lin ran a convenience store himself. He noticed that during the peak period of subsidies, the goods on the community group buying platform were much cheaper than the purchase price of their own stores. For example, a chocolate, their own purchase price of 60 yuan, selling price of 70 yuan; on the community group buying platform, this chocolate, new users only need 40 yuan to buy. A coffee, their own purchase price of 80 yuan, selling 100 yuan; but on the community group buying platform, new users can buy 60 yuan.
After learning that the price of the community group buying platform is so cheap, Qiu Lin moved his mind, and he knew in the "wool group" that many people began to build the community platform. Qiu Lin first used his mobile phone number to place an order for 10 goods, including chocolates and pastries, which has reached the upper limit of a single user's order and cannot place another order. After the goods arrived, he put them on his own counter to sell, making a profit of more than 100 yuan, and the platform will also give the head of the group a commission, so he makes a lot of money. In order to make more profits, he also used his wife's and parents' mobile phone numbers to place orders and buy more than 100 pieces of goods, all of which received a large amount of subsidies from the platform, which were sold by him in his own convenience store.
When these mobile phone numbers can no longer get the "newcomer" subsidy, Qiu Lin went to apply for a number of mobile phone numbers and virtual mobile phone numbers, according to the regulations, an ID card can apply for up to 5 mobile phone numbers, each mobile phone number can apply for 3 virtual numbers, he used these new mobile phone numbers and virtual numbers to place orders, bought a lot of cheap goods, plus the platform's new cashback and the head of the commission, Qiu Lin made a lot of money.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and the behavior of community platforms in obtaining customers at low prices was investigated and punished by the market supervision department, and several community platforms were fined for unfair competition behavior of low-price dumping. After the fine, these platforms canceled the offers, and Qiu Lin could not profit from the difference, only a meager commission.
This year, the community group buying platform found that Qiu Lin's community group purchase pick-up point, order volume and transaction amount dropped sharply, and the preferential information sent to users also sank into the sea, and these original new customers have become "zombie users". After some investigation, the platform found an abnormality, canceled Qiu Lin's community leader qualifications, and also deeply investigated the origin of these customers and the whereabouts of the goods.
Qiu Lin said remorsefully: "I worked in vain, not only did I not make money, but I also lost one or two thousand yuan." They all blamed themselves for being carried away by interests at that time, and were also blinded by the subsidies of capital. ”
People who pick up their mouths have never thought of paying back
Late at night, the phone rang, a middle-aged man said sternly: "××, your arrears on the online loan platform have been handed over to us for collection, this period of 20,000 yuan arrears, limited to 2 days of memory into the designated account, otherwise, we will take the next step against you." Here, the sleepy-eyed young man said calmly: "I am a 'mouth-picking', your platform is suspected of illegal fundraising, is it about to liquidate?" Hearing such an answer, the middle-aged man could only hang up the phone helplessly.
The person who makes the collection personnel helpless to "pick up the mouth" is to deliberately save money on the online loan platform to drag Kang Yu (pseudonym), who does not pay back, and he has a good word: "Anyway, you online platforms are suspected of illegal fundraising, and now the state is vigorously rectifying and cleaning up, and after a few months, your platform does not exist, where will anyone ask for debts again?" ”
Moreover, since March 1 this year, according to the relevant provisions of the Supreme Court, violent collection is suspected of being a crime, and these "mouth-picking" people are even more "fearless".
Since 2015, Kang Yu has joined the professional group of "mouth picking", learned the "mouth picking" method, and applied for loans on 14 online loan platforms, with a total loan of more than 200,000 yuan. In fact, he received only 70,000 yuan, and many platforms charged service fees, information fees, etc., with an annualized interest rate of more than 50%. At first, he also had a part, in 2018, an online lending platform was suspected of illegal fundraising explosion liquidation, Kang Yu's arrears in this platform of 3,000 yuan, and was collected for half a year, half a year later, no one came to collect.
Kang Yu's credit record has been "spent", he can no longer find a formal job, can only work odd jobs for a living, and the salary settlement requires gold. Over the years, his family, friends, and even colleagues in his former work unit have received calls from collectors, and he has completely "died of sociality." He has been using each cell phone number for no more than three months and has been playing hide-and-seek with collectors. Once, collectors almost found him, and he hid in the toilet of the mall to escape.
Kang Yu, who is now a chef at a restaurant, said: "The experience of 'picking up the mouth' has completely changed my life, and my studies, work, career, and marriage have all been devastating." If you come back in life, you don't want to contact the online lending platform again, and you will never be a 'mouth-picking' person. ”
It is expected that the network platform will no longer "burn money to pull new, long-term killing"
Recently, legal departments in various localities have strictly investigated and dealt with the "wool group" behavior of network fraud. Liu Moumou in Shanghai bought a mobile phone number at a low price, received a "newcomer coupon" of 29 yuan minus 15 yuan on the e-commerce platform, and sold the goods for profit. Since the rider Tan Moumou was pulled into a "wool task group" in early 2019, he made money every day according to the instructions to "do the task", that is, to purchase a new mobile phone number through malicious registration software, and registered as a new user of the platform on the mobile phone App, and then placed an order to purchase the designated goods of the group owner, paid the payment first, and then received remuneration from the group owner. After being investigated and punished, the Yangpu District Court of Shanghai Sentenced Liu X and 12 other wool group members to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from three years and six months to three months of detention for fraud.
In the investigation, the reporter found that the e-commerce festival, which has become more and more frequent and more intense, has made consumers feel no longer. More consumers reported that they carefully examined the price of the goods and found that they were not cheaper than usual, and because they were members, they were more expensive than the newcomers. The same goes for food delivery platforms and ride-hailing platforms. The looming "long-term killing" behavior of the online platform, and then contrasted with the "burning money subsidy crazy pull new", immediately disgusted consumers.
In the game of reaping and counter-harvesting, each side is not just, and it is a victim. In the long run, when the e-commerce platform no longer plays the routine of "first pulling new, then killing", the wool group naturally has no chance to survive. E-commerce platforms should attract and retain customers with equal prices, excellent quality and lasting services, only in this way can the Internet economy be stable and far-reaching and inclusive to the public.
Author: Lee Ji Sen
Source: Tonight's newspaper