9,999 yuan of the Old Summer Palace horse head, 3,999 yuan of Qing Dynasty official kiln porcelain, 2,999 yuan commemorative "gold coins...... Recently, some "cultural antiques" that cost tens of thousands of yuan at every turn, but do not have any appraisal certificates, have become the "favorites" of many middle-aged and elderly consumers in the live broadcast room. Under the inducement of the sentences in the live broadcast room, "invest thousands and earn tens of millions" and "high-priced recycling auctions", some consumers frantically auctioned the so-called "rare collections" with the psychology of "picking up leaks", but they didn't know that they had fallen into a scam.
Is the sale of antiques in the live broadcast room a leak or a scam?
Since discovering that her father was addicted to "cultural and antique" live shopping in March this year, Ms. Xia is still distressed. Commemorative "gold coins", engraved seals, jade, stamps...... So far, Ms. Xia's father has spent 300,000 yuan on various "cultural and antique" live broadcasts.
In the live broadcast room of "Cultural Toys and Antiques" that Ms. Xia's father paid attention to, the anchors tied the hearts of the audience with bizarre stories. "The anchors made up stories that their boss was killed outside the country, and the people below were divided into two factions. In order to prevent the bad guys from taking these collections, let fans take pictures of them, and promised to recycle them at a high price in the future. Ms. Xia couldn't understand why her father would believe these stories that sounded completely outrageous.
Ms. Zhang from Chengdu also had a headache for her father who fell into the trap of "cultural play". Ms. Zhang's father spent 9,999 yuan in the live broadcast room of a platform in May this year to buy the so-called "horse head statue in the Old Summer Palace". "We all know that the real horse head is a national treasure, collected by the state. But my father always felt that he had picked up the leaks himself, and he could auction them off for a lot of money in the future. Ms. Zhang said.
The reporter squatted in some live broadcast rooms and found that porcelain, jade, fabrics, etc. are all "treasures" in these live broadcast rooms, with cheap prices of tens of hundreds of yuan and tens of thousands of yuan. Some of these antiques are sold directly at a bid price, and some are in the form of live auctions, or a price increase of 500 yuan or 1,000 yuan. Many consumers "consume passionately" for this reason, and even do not hesitate to borrow money or loans from relatives to buy.
In a "cultural antique" live broadcast room, the reporter found that the anchor put a note in front of the screen that reads "This thing is a backup link, subject to the real thing", and at the same time, a staff member swiped the screen in the live broadcast room "The baby in the live broadcast room is true and old". During the live broadcast, the anchor sometimes displayed the so-called handwritten thank you letters from fans, and sometimes took out pennants claiming to be sent by fans, and nearly 200 fans, driven by the anchor, kept swiping messages such as "I believe in you" and "I am willing".
Under the brainwashing of the anchors, some middle-aged and elderly viewers fell into it, believing that what they bought was a "rare treasure" worth tens of millions. However, in Ms. Zhang's opinion, these "fake" fake antiques were poorly made and did not have any appraisal explanation. "Even if they sell it as a counterfeit, I think it's acceptable, but they want to make the old people mistakenly think it's the 'real thing.'"
Ms. Zhang joined a consumer rights group that gathered hundreds of victims' children to discuss how to help their parents defend their rights. Many family members of the victims told their difficult rights protection experiences in the group: some anchors blocked customers or directly canceled their accounts, resulting in consumers not being able to find the object of complaint; Some anchors sell things that are completely inconsistent with the descriptions on the product details page, making it difficult to collect evidence in the rights protection process......
However, in the process of defending their rights, the most painful thing for the victims' children is the obstruction from their "brainwashed" parents. "They didn't believe they had been scammed and refused to allow us to return the goods for them." Ms. Xia reluctantly told reporters, "For such an obvious consumption trap, some elderly people don't want to believe the exhortations of their children and the police, but they believe the words of the anchor." ”
Beware of the "greasy" hidden in the antique live broadcast
With the popularity of live streaming consumption in recent years, antiques, cultural toys and other cultural relics and artworks have increasingly entered the live broadcast room. Since most of the cultural relics and artworks are non-standard products, high professional requirements are put forward for both buyers and sellers. Coupled with the rapid development of the industry, the live broadcast and sale of cultural relics and artworks have been chaotic.
The reporter found that many online live auctions have no threshold or low threshold, and some stores have incomplete qualifications. The reporter squatted in a number of live broadcast rooms selling "antiques" and found that most of the live broadcast rooms were not fully qualified, and some shops openly conducted auctions in the live broadcast room without the qualification of cultural relics auction licenses, and auctioned off each item at a high price.
He Hui, vice president and secretary general of the China Auction Industry Association, said that if a merchant wants to auction cultural relics and artworks online, in addition to a business license, it is also necessary to obtain an auction business approval certificate issued by the competent department of commerce and a cultural relics auction license issued by the cultural relics department. "At the same time, before the auction, the auction objects of cultural relics must be reviewed and approved by the administrative department of cultural relics before they can be put up for auction. Before the auction, the auction company should also conduct a public preview for at least 2 days. ”
In addition to the lack of qualification certificates, some live broadcast rooms are also suspected of false publicity. According to Ms. Zhang, the two anchors her father often watched claimed to be the director of a museum and the employee of a well-known auction agency, respectively, and often posted projects with multiple "official" platforms. But after careful verification, Ms. Zhang found that these so-called "official" platforms were fictitious. The collection that his father actually purchased in the live broadcast room and the content in the sales link are also completely inconsistent.
"These anchors have a lot of experience in live broadcasting, and they will not personally promise the authenticity of 'antiques', for fear that they will be banned if they say too specifically. But they will make up all kinds of bizarre stories, or display some information, and even arrange for employees to disguise themselves as 'nurses' to send fake messages in the live broadcast room, just to make buyers mistakenly believe that these fake antiques are real collections and induce them to place orders. "They will also be 'considerate' to help you think of a way out, as long as you take a photo, they will promise to recycle it at a high price, or promise to help you auction the collection for a large price." In fact, it will not be cashed in at all. ”
When she suspected that her father had been deceived, Ms. Zhang immediately reported the relevant live broadcast room to the platform, and the live broadcast room was soon banned. "But it didn't take long for my father to continue to buy 'antiques' in other live broadcast rooms, and at a glance, he found out that he was still the original anchor. The streamers told their fans that their original live broadcast room was blocked because they were jealously reported by their peers. The streamer then opened a number of new accounts, contacted the original followers through other platforms, and then sold them through the new accounts. ”
The reporter's investigation found that on the live broadcast platform, the phenomenon of "changing the vest and continuing to flicker" is very common. In this regard, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that the current platform can ban merchants with improper business practices, but it cannot accurately identify other associated accounts of merchants with these problems. "Especially for operators with a small number of fans, the impact of the ban on them is very limited. As long as you change the account, you can start your business activities again. ”
Strong supervision and prevention make antique scams nowhere to hide
The reporter found that the public security departments in various parts of the mainland have recently investigated and handled a number of cases of online live broadcast sales of fake antiques. Not long ago, the Kangping County Public Security Bureau in Shenyang smashed a criminal gang that used live streaming to commit fraud. It is reported that the gang deduced the false plot of acquiring "antiques" overseas through the design and interpretation of live broadcasts, and made illegal profits of more than 280,000 yuan.
Many respondents said that the reason why the live sale of cultural relics and artworks can become a gray space for some people to seek improper benefits is that on the one hand, the industry is developing too fast, and the relevant industry standards and regulatory systems have not kept up, and on the other hand, there are also reasons such as insufficient attention from regulatory authorities and platforms, and insufficient understanding of consumers about them.
Therefore, in Chen Yinjiang's view, the platform needs to be more proactive in the supervision of the live broadcast of cultural relics and artwork auctions. "According to the People's Republic of China E-Commerce Law, the Regulations for the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests of People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations, the actual goods sold in the live broadcast do not match the goods purchased by the buyers, and the incomplete display of merchant qualifications is already an illegal act that infringes on the rights and interests of consumers." Chen Yinjiang said, "If the platform can increase the review of the qualifications of operators and strengthen the management of business activities within the platform, in fact, these problems can be avoided to a large extent." ”
In April this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Standardized and Healthy Development of Online Auctions", which gave clear industry guidance on how to regulate the order of the online auction market and promote the high-quality development of the auction industry. It not only calls for strengthening the autonomy of online auction platforms and industry self-discipline, but also points out the need to strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of online auction activities.
He Hui suggested that in order to achieve the healthy development of the online auction industry, on the one hand, the relevant competent departments and regulatory departments should increase law enforcement efforts to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, "on the other hand, we also need to refine the online auction process and related service requirements by formulating online auction standards for cultural relics and artworks, and standardize the behavior of all parties." ”
A practitioner in the auction industry said that the relevant standards for online auctions in mainland China are not yet perfect, resulting in a lack of effective basis for regulatory authorities to enforce the law and consumer rights protection. This is also one of the reasons for the frequent chaos of live auctions of cultural relics and artworks.
At the same time, industry insiders also called for consumers to popularize the professional knowledge of cultural relics and art auctions. "We hope that consumers will participate in the online live sale of cultural relics and artworks out of genuine love, and be cautious about the psychology of 'picking up leaks'." Pei Xin, vice president of Shanghai State Auction, said, "The market for cultural relics and artworks is complex, not only up and down, but also if you want to make a profit by participating in the auction, it is very easy to fall into the 'trap' of criminals." Pei Xin told reporters that the formal auction agency will not charge any fees to the entrusting party before the auction is concluded, and it is recommended that consumers try to go to the offline preview to see the real thing as much as possible accompanied by professionals before placing an order. ”
In addition, strengthening the companionship and care for middle-aged and elderly groups can also help the elderly establish anti-fraud awareness. Wu Hanzhang, director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Elderly Service Center, believes that some elderly people are easily confused by the words of anchors or Internet celebrities, and it is difficult to identify the words and routines of online fraud. It is necessary to help the elderly establish a sense of anti-deception, and to strengthen the popularization of science education for the elderly by social welfare forces and news publicity.
Source: Economic Information Daily
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