Listen to songs and guess dramas, easy to make money? Reporter investigates "withdrawal software trap"

Ms. Liu of Beijing's Chaoyang District is a housewife who often surfs the Internet to brush short videos. In April this year, she accidentally saw a short video advertisement that reads "Listen to songs and guess dramas, easily make money". Out of curiosity, she downloaded the software called "Dot Guess Song", successfully withdrew 0.9 yuan after completing the task, and later she spent 2 hours a day answering questions in the software, and when she completed the task and prepared to withdraw, she found that the withdrawal requirement was suddenly raised to "guess 5000 songs".

Have you been deceived? Ms. Liu raised questions on the Internet, and then found that many people had similar experiences, some people called it the "withdrawal software trap" - it seems that the more you answer the questions, the more you make money, but the more difficult the task is, and you can never withdraw.

"Rule of Law Daily" reporter recently found that there are many software such as "guessing songs" such as "guessing songs" and "guessing songs to make money", which often play "easy to make money", "newcomers can download large red envelopes", "you can make money without watching advertisements", "there is no threshold for withdrawal to the account" and other advertising slogans, attracting people to download app answers and do tasks. Many people spend a lot of time on it, and eventually they can't withdraw at all or can only withdraw a few yuan or even a few cents. Some shouted: Be fooled.

The withdrawal function is exaggerated

Draining profit is the goal

Mr. Cai of Tianjin and Ms. Liu have the same experience. He told reporters that after downloading the "dot guess song", its task showed that "for 10 consecutive days, 80 questions per day can be withdrawn 300 yuan", but when the task is completed for 10 days and is ready to withdraw, the "dot guess song" also proposes to "guess 5,000 songs correctly" to withdraw. Mr. Cai decisively uninstalled the software.

So, can "guess 5,000 songs" really be withdrawn?

"It's impossible to withdraw cash." Ms. Xiao from Daxing, Beijing, said that she worked hard to answer the questions to do the task, and the task of answering the "little guessing song" question became more and more difficult, and by the time of the 4700th or so song guessing session, non-Chinese songs such as Thai began to appear, and many questions did not have correct answers. When 5200 songs were completed, the software showed that the maximum number of songs to guess had been reached, but it was still unable to withdraw.

Ms. Xiao told reporters that she immediately contacted the customer service of the "Dot Guess Song" software. Customer service said that subsequent versions of the software are still under development and there is no solution at present. "That is, it is impossible to complete the withdrawal, which is simply deceitful, fraudulent traffic, and waste the user's time."

This year's National Day holiday, according to Ms. Liu's guidance, the reporter searched for the "dot guessing song" software in the mobile phone application market and found that the software had been removed from the shelves. On October 18, when the reporter searched again, he found that a software called "Dot Guess Song - Receive Cash" can be downloaded. Ms. Liu told reporters that the appearance and image of "dot guessing song - receiving cash" and "dot guessing song" are similar, and the advertising and gameplay are also similar.

In the "dot guess song - lead cash" software reviews, polarization is serious, there are comments that "very fun, hundreds of dollars at once withdrawn" "guessing song game exercise brain, a super easy to use software, come to download it, puzzle brain", these reviews are hit 5 stars; there are also comments saying "No, it is recommended not to download, always can only mention 0.3 yuan, can not mention more" "too bad, said good 5 days to do the task can get 300 yuan, I did not get the task after doing it", These reviews are all given 1 star. More than 1500 reviews with an average score of 2.5.

In fact, there are many similar tasks and answer question withdrawal software. The reporter saw a lot of advertisements for "reading novels and withdrawing cash" and "listening to songs" in a short video platform, and bloggers recommended videos, most of which had the text "earn pocket money, simple operation, go and try it.".

In the mobile phone application market, the reporter searched for a variety of guessing song withdrawal software, such as "guessing the song show" and "guessing the god of the song". Most of these software have ratings of around 1 to 2 points, and the comment area is full of bad reviews of "unresponsible" and "scammer software".

The reporter's investigation found that there are two main types of mobile phone withdrawal software:

The first type is the software itself to provide users with substantial services, withdrawal as a diversion function, to attract users to download and use the software, such software is usually the product of more well-known companies, can be withdrawn, but the amount is small, and its advertising is not consistent. For example, "Tomato Novel" takes free novel reading as the main service content, and some users said that they only withdraw 15 yuan after watching more than 700 hours.

"Although the amount of withdrawal is far from the advertisement, the original intention of my use is to read novels, so I don't feel cheated, and the experience is still OK." One user said. However, some users were dissatisfied because the withdrawal amount was quite different from expectations.

The second type is that the software only attracts users for the purpose of withdrawal, and the user earns the withdrawal amount by continuously doing tasks, games and watching the advertising completion time, and accumulates the amount specified in the application and withdraws it when it is withdrawn. However, users generally report that they cannot successfully withdraw cash: after completing a task, this type of software will continue to increase the withdrawal requirements.

According to the reporter's observation, most of the withdrawal software has the problem of false publicity and exaggerated publicity, and the real purpose of the software company is to drain profits, and a large number of users cannot withdraw at all, spending a lot of time but not getting any rewards.

Celebrity endorsements are difficult to discern

False propaganda induces advertising

It is understood that some withdrawal software will also induce users to share during use, or through some page design "tricks", so that users unconsciously download plug-ins or jump pages.

A netizen who uses a lot of withdrawal software, "Deep Blue", said that the withdrawal software will be flooded with a large number of advertisements during the completion of the task, and there are many inducement ads, such as a false off-page option on the screen, and the user will automatically download the software in the advertisement once it is touched.

"Hidden Blue" said that there were two reasons for its initial belief in the authenticity of withdrawal: one is that some software can really withdraw at the beginning, such as withdrawing 0.3 yuan; second, the bullet screen of "××× (user nickname) withdrawal of 500 yuan successfully appears above the interface. "Now that I think about it, this is all a routine of software companies, which steal users' WeChat avatars to make false propaganda."

In the comments below the "Zhihu" related questions, the reporter found that many users found that they could not withdraw after completing 1000 to 2000 song guesses or a certain amount of tasks, and there was no successful withdrawal of a large amount in the comments.

The reporter noticed in the investigation that some withdrawal software is not lacking in endorsement by celebrities, but the authenticity of the endorsement needs to be verified.

Mr. Wang of Tianjin told reporters that he originally did not believe in the withdrawal software, "where in the world there is such a good thing", but after seeing the celebrity endorsement, he felt that there was a certain degree of credibility. He downloaded a withdrawal software to watch video ads, kept doing tasks, and the task requirements continued to increase, and later asked to watch 98,000 video ads to withdraw cash, which made him realize that he would never eat this "free lunch".

Many interviewees said that some bad software developers in the name of "leisure money", taking advantage of users' desire to make easy money, using exaggerated slogans or inducing advertisements to attract people to download software, defrauding downloads and traffic, hoping that the majority of netizens will polish their eyes and do not be deceived.

Administrative departments supervise penalties

Serious circumstances or a crime

On August 30, the official Weibo "Black Cat Complaints" of the Sina Black Cat Consumer Service Platform released information showing that there were nearly 200,000 complaints related to "withdrawal" on the platform.

Duan Yingzi, a lawyer at Beijing Taoan Law Firm, said bluntly: "If the withdrawal conditions advertised by the withdrawal software cause users to misunderstand and guide them to download, but the software cannot realize the withdrawal function when it is actually used, it may be suspected of false publicity or false advertising." ”

Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of the Communication University of China, pointed out that the Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates that business operators shall not make false or misleading commercial publicity about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, and honors of their goods, so as to deceive and mislead consumers. Business operators must not help other business operators conduct false or misleading commercial publicity through methods such as organizing false transactions. Those who violate the law shall be ordered by the supervision and inspection department to stop the illegal conduct and shall be fined, and the business license may be revoked if the circumstances are serious. Where false advertisements are published, punishment is given in accordance with the provisions of the Advertising Law.

"Consumers have the right to know the true circumstances of the goods they purchase or use or the services they receive. If it is to conceal the true situation, deceive consumers, or violate the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, and if the rights and interests of consumers are damaged as marketing means for merchants, they may claim compensation from the service provider. Zheng Ning said.

Liu Deliang, professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University and director of the Asia-Pacific Network Law Research Center, analyzed that from the perspective of advertising law, some withdrawal software provides so-called products and services that are false, violating the provisions of the Advertising Law, constituting false publicity, and the competent departments for industry and commerce can supervise and punish them accordingly; from the perspective of the Contract Law, if the content of false publicity constitutes a contract clause, and the merchant does not perform the contract and uses fraud as the purpose, it may constitute contract fraud, and consumers can claim that they bear the liability for breach of contract. From the perspective of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, false publicity fraud constitutes an infringement of the consumer's right to know, and some may constitute an infringement of the consumer's right to choose, and the consumer can sue; from the perspective of criminal law, if it constitutes contract fraud, which is not for the purpose of performing the contract, and simply deceives the consumer, the serious one may constitute contract fraud in the criminal law and can be investigated for criminal liability.

In view of the phenomenon that some software in the mobile phone application market uses "withdrawal" as a gimmick to deceive consumers and drain software, Zheng Ning analyzed that one of the main reasons is that there are many such illegal situations and the relevant departments are not strong enough to enforce the law; second, the cost of such illegal acts is low, the benefits are high, and the interest drive makes this phenomenon difficult to control and eliminate.

In the interview, many users asked: For this kind of withdrawal software, does the mobile application market platform have no regulatory responsibility?

In this regard, Liu Deliang said that from a legal point of view, under normal circumstances, the platform does not have the obligation to actively supervise, but for the withdrawal software that has been repeatedly complained about, the platform should take corresponding measures, and if it is verified, it can take measures such as requiring the complained software to be removed from the shelves and restricting the complained software from entering the application market. If the platform refuses to perform its duties for software that has been repeatedly complained about by users, it shall bear the corresponding responsibility.

At the same time, Liu Deliang said that from the perspective of institutional supervision, whether it is industrial and commercial supervision, advertising law enforcement agency supervision or internal supervision of the platform, in the face of the repeated listing of withdrawal software for "vests", there are problems with greater supervision. If this phenomenon is to be eradicated, criminal law involvement is necessary. Although the amount of suspected fraud in the withdrawal software is not large for a single user, the number of suspected fraud is large, which may also constitute fraud under contract law. Once fraud is constituted, the public security organs intervene, treat it as a criminal case, and pursue the criminal responsibility of the relevant personnel, which may be the most deterrent and ultimate means.

Zheng Ning reminded that in the mobile phone application market with mixed eyes, in view of the phenomenon of false publicity and induced download of withdrawal software, while the relevant departments strengthen the standardization and rectification, the majority of consumers should also polish their eyes. To avoid the psychology of "pie in the sky", calmly analyze in the face of temptation, and beware of falling into the trap of false propaganda, so as not to waste time contributing traffic to bad software. When encountering infringement, consumers should bravely actively protect their rights through platforms such as 12315. (Reporter Han Dandong, intern Yang Huijia)

Editor: Wang Wenyuan

Source: Rule of Law Daily