Inventory of professional whistleblowers' fishing tricks, father and son reported 49 times in 3 years for 'picking cucumbers', father and son | merchant | profession

According to a video report from Zhuzhou Daily, a father and son purchased a 9999 yuan "RMB bouquet" at a flower shop in Zhuzhou, Hunan. The next day, they complained to the People's Bank of China Zhuzhou Central Branch and demanded punishment. At present, the flower shop involved has taken down the relevant products as required.

It is reported that the father and son have filed more than 400 complaints nationwide, and the widely influential "Picking Cucumbers" incident arose from their complaints. At that time, many businesses believed that the two were professional whistleblowers, and the complaint of "Picking Cucumbers" was a "malicious complaint" for high compensation purposes. This time, the complainant complained about the "RMB bouquet". According to reports, the complainant consulted the bank in May this year to inquire whether the "RMB bouquet" was illegal. Upstream news analysis found that in recent years, with the rise of the "professional whistleblower" group, the public has also developed different views on them.

1 father and son reported "cucumber shooting" 49 times in 3 years"

In May 2023, Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, revealed that a pair of "professional reporting" father and son reported 49 times in 3 years that local businesses sold "cucumber" without a license. According to a report by the Workers' Daily on May 19, a document recently released by the Catering Industry Association of Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province showed that many catering enterprises in the city reported that a pair of local Yan surnamed father and son used the reason that the catering enterprises did not have a cold dish certificate to sell cold dishes such as "cucumber" and demanded high compensation from the catering enterprises through frequent reports. Since 2020, they have actually reported 49 times.

Peng, who runs a hot pot restaurant in Zhuzhou, has been reported by a father and son surnamed Yan. "The other party came to the store and spent more than 500 yuan, including a 'pickled cucumber'," Peng said. A few days later, the market supervision department came to the store to demand rectification. After Peng stopped selling all cold dishes as required, he did not expect the other party to report to the higher-level market supervision department. The city supervision department suggested that Peng negotiate with the whistleblower to try to withdraw the complaint, but the other party "spoke up" and demanded compensation of 10 times the total consumption amount on that day.

Local restaurant operator Liu felt even more wronged. His menu originally did not include "making cucumbers", but Yan took the initiative to request it. "I said no, he just said to crush the cucumber and sprinkle some chili and vinegar." A few days later, his restaurant was reported. A merchant once hung their photo on the front door, reminding them not to receive this father and son.

According to the Qichacha APP, as of now, over 1000 catering establishments across the country have been administratively punished for selling cold dishes such as "pickled cucumbers" and "cold mixed cucumbers" beyond the scope of their operating licenses, with penalties ranging from 500 yuan to 5000 yuan.

Some enterprises have doubled the pressure of professional whistleblowers.

The revised Food Safety Law in April 2015 increased the compensation requirement of "three times the loss and a minimum of 1,000 yuan" on the basis of the original "ten times the price". In August 2021, the relevant state departments issued the interim measures for the reward for reporting major violations in the field of market supervision, encouraging the public to actively report major violations, including food safety, and the maximum amount of reward for reporting each case is 1 million yuan.

At the same time, in recent years, with the professionalization of whistleblowers, some people's anti-counterfeiting methods and purposes have deviated from the original intention of legislation.

According to statistics, in the past two years, more than 17 large supermarkets across the country have had conflicts with professional whistleblowers, involving amounts of tens of millions; RT Mart stores experience approximately 2000 professional claims every year. In addition, in recent years, there have been over one million complaints and reports initiated nationwide under the pretext of cracking down on counterfeits and safeguarding rights. Professional whistleblowers maliciously carry out complaints, reports, and reconsideration lawsuits, which not only disrupt market order, but also disrupt the work order of market supervision departments and courts, damage the business environment, and even breed criminal behavior. However, the ubiquitous occupational reporting has led to some enterprises being overwhelmed and operating pressure doubling.

3 habitual "wolf tactics" malicious entanglement

In recent years, with the rise of online shopping, the "battlefield" of professional whistleblowers has also expanded from offline physical stores to online stores.

According to the Legal Daily, social chat groups with the theme of "cracking down on counterfeits" are large in scale and very active. Advanced QQ groups will also teach tutorials on the production of appraisal certificates, such as "operating beyond the scope, heavy metal pollution, false advertising, and illegal addition". In order to crack down on counterfeit products in cosmetics stores, the group will also teach how to make allergy certificates, in order to attract some shops with no problems.

A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily expressed willingness to "get on the car" as a newcomer and asked for specific instructions on how to proceed. A group administrator said they used the "wolf tactic", where several people place orders at the same time, each person only places small orders, and then together they demand compensation to threaten reporting. Generally, sellers will provide money for disaster relief or accept refunds without returns to achieve the goal of being a foodie. At the same time, the group administrator said that if successful, remember to give him a "train ticket" and confidently stated that he can "train first, then ticket", that is, "eat" the goods or receive compensation before giving him the corresponding money.

According to "seniors", mobile phone and other stores are also easily targeted by professional whistleblowers, mainly checking business licenses, product codes, 3C certification, etc. If not, it will be extorted. In addition, some well-trained professional reporting teams are also very particular when searching for "prey". Small shops that appear to be selling counterfeit and inferior products are not within their target range, because if the claims are too high, the boss may directly close the shop, and the whistleblower may also lose the payment, which is not worth the loss.

Therefore, they mainly focus on electronic, furniture and other products with higher unit prices. They will choose their best-selling products from online stores, and then report to the industry and commerce department, send a lawyer's letter, and file a lawsuit in court. They have a set of assembly line operation processes, high success rates, and good profits every time.

Mr. Zhu, who has dealt with a large number of cases involving professional whistleblowers in e-commerce enterprises, said in an interview that there are two common "tricks" for professional whistleblowers: one is to repeatedly purchase claims and share merchant information, but not to report the merchant; The second is to amplify the limited defects of the product, using the threat of reporting and complaints to achieve the purpose of taking money. Finally, it is still to allow counterfeit goods in the market, or the flaws of merchants to continue to exist.

Several industry insiders interviewed believe that most professional whistleblowers are profit oriented and cannot be considered real consumers. Their role in cracking down on counterfeit goods and maintaining public interests is very limited. Moreover, professional claims occupy a large amount of administrative and judicial resources, which has a negative impact on normal market supervision work.