​On the night of March 15, live streaming kept me awake all night

Starting from this year's 315, this article lists the industry chaos in the Internet field, such as the live broadcast of sad dramas that harvest the elderly, free hardware, chaotic live broadcast room water army, information security loopholes, etc., and gives hope for Internet companies to rectify. It is recommended for partners who want to learn how to protect the interests of middle-aged and elderly consumers.

It's March 15 again this year.

Whether in terms of boosting current consumer confidence or protecting consumer interests, this year's 315 has been given more significance.

Specifically in the Internet field, this year's 315 focused on issues such as "live broadcast sad scripts", "free storytelling machines", and "online water armies", pointing to the live broadcast industry, especially protecting the interests of middle-aged and elderly consumers.

It is worth noting that this year's 315 did not directly name large enterprises, but blurred the platform names and focused more on industry chaos.

The Internet companies that were not involved were happy and could rest easy. Although the Internet companies that were involved were not directly named, they knew they were being criticized and were already working hard to make corrections!

01Live broadcast of sad drama, harvesting the elderly

Don’t let your parents’ hard-earned money be defrauded by “sad drama” bloggers!

At this year's 315 Gala, CCTV exposed a scam that used a series of dramatic, bloody and outrageous false plots on a live broadcast platform to deceive the sympathy and trust of the elderly and exploit them.

The report said that these bloggers usually solve disputes, conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and do things for ordinary people. After writing the script and having actors perform the story, they will sell medicines and other products at the right time.

For example, a blogger named @小张说事 said in his live broadcast room and video that he had sent his sister and brother-in-law to prison, and his sister's mother-in-law came to her home to make trouble after learning about this. In a live broadcast, this "mother-in-law" pretended to be a waste collector and came to @小张说事's home to snatch a box of things. Then someone who claimed to be an oncologist came from nowhere and said that this box of things was a special medicine for curing tumors. With this, @小张说事 snatched this box of "special medicine" from the "mother-in-law" and began to sell these "special medicines" logically.

"Moms and Dads, take pictures for me!" he said in the live broadcast room. Many elderly people who did not know the truth were led by him and placed orders in a hurry.

The 315 investigation also found that these products were labeled as "compressed candies" and "solid beverages" on the outer packaging, which did not match the "miracle medicines" advertised.

During the investigation, a supplier who has worked with the "bitter drama" blogger for one or two years said: "Basically, they carry whatever new products I have. The anchor can earn 80 yuan by shipping 10 boxes of products for 99 yuan."

The benefits are self-evident.

There is also an actor who claimed to have starred in these absurd plot live broadcasts and said that these stories all have scripts. The scripts will require the actors when to curse and when to play the victim, and then put the right products into the right plots. In order to gain the trust of the elderly, they will even build scenes like hospitals.

In fact, there are endless bloggers on the Internet who earn traffic and money by telling sad stories.

On social media platforms, many users have shared stories of their parents being deceived into buying a lot of calligraphy and paintings, jade bracelets, and gold magic medicines. In fact, a closer look reveals that most of these products are fake and substandard. In many users' descriptions, the elderly believed in these bloggers and were extremely addicted, which made their children angry and worried.

As of press time, AI Blue Media learned that the accounts @高冷 and @小张说事 that were exposed in CCTV's 315 Gala can no longer be searched on relevant platforms.

These live broadcasts, with exaggerated acting and shouting in front of the camera, are under the guise of resolving disputes, but in fact they are deliberately cutting the leeks of the elderly. They keep saying "Mom and Dad", but in their hearts they are thinking about the money bags of the "mom and dad" in front of the screen. In these continuous sad dramas, they harvest traffic and deceive the trust of the elderly.

How to enable the elderly to enjoy a happy and healthy later life on the Internet has put forward new requirements for the governance capabilities of Internet live streaming platforms.

02The trap of free hardware

At the 2023 315 Gala, the scam of sky-high-priced miracle drugs hidden in the free storytelling machine was revealed.

The "free storytelling machine" is a radio that is distributed to the elderly for free. Each machine has a built-in audio of more than 4 hours, which contains some well-known experts and drug developers introducing the functions and effects of drugs, as well as the sincere gratitude of patients - many elderly people can receive hundreds of packages containing such machines for free every year. They buy drugs through the purchase channels in the audio, and the selling price is several times that of e-commerce platforms. The drug instructions do not have the therapeutic effects mentioned in the "radio".

315 reporters verified the identities of the experts in the audio and found that everything from the experts' names to the institutions they worked for were fictitious.

In recent years, many drug dealers have been giving away storytelling machines for free to sell drugs to the elderly. 315 reporters contacted two equipment manufacturers. The other party told the reporter that this machine is called a "storytelling machine" and the factory price is only about 10 yuan. Although it is given away for free, it is actually a bait thrown by drug dealers to the elderly - as for the specific content of the audio, they don't care.

On July 20, 2022, the Jinshan Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau successfully cracked down on a fraud gang that sold health products to the elderly at high prices by giving away storytelling machines for free. The main source of personal information for the criminal gang was buying and selling between peers to obtain a large amount of personal information of these elderly citizens. About 1 million pieces of personal information of citizens were seized from their backend data servers.

In recent years, police in various places have also cracked down on many similar cases. The Jinkou Branch of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau cracked down on a case that also used storytelling machines to defraud the elderly. The fraud gang sold ordinary food with a price as low as a few yuan at a price of up to 2,000 yuan, and the number of victimized elderly people reached more than 600. The Wujiang District Public Security Bureau of Suzhou City cracked down on a similar fraud case. The fraud gang sold products worth tens of yuan to the elderly at a price of more than a thousand yuan through storytelling machines.

In the investigation of 315 reporters, it was found that these elderly people were deceived by the false advertisements in the storytelling machines. The so-called free storytelling machines became tools for fraud. Not only did they cheat the elderly of their money, but they also misled them and even delayed their normal treatment.

03 Chaos Live Broadcast Room Water Army

The era of seeing is believing may have passed. What you see and hear in the live broadcast room, and even those you match with in the game, may not necessarily be the same spectators or players as you.

They may, they are very likely just groups of online water armies and order-brushing machines.

At this year's 315 Gala, CCTV exposed a number of illegal businesses that specialize in online live streaming (including but not limited to live streaming with goods, online games, etc.) traffic business.

These merchants use technical means to arrange dozens or even hundreds of mobile phones in a "workshop". These mobile phones can access any live broadcast room with traffic and popularity demands during the same period to fake popularity, fake discussion heat, and even fake active game players, creating a false lively atmosphere for users, thereby inducing users to engage in real transactions or recharges.

According to these unscrupulous merchants, these blatant sales of fake orders, in addition to bringing positive traffic to customers, can also attack any competitors of the live streaming platform through malicious reporting and other means.

Many seemingly lively live broadcasts, such as expert shows, are actually almost entirely populated by online scammers: first, the anchors purchase fake traffic, such as number of viewers, interaction volume, popularity, etc., through these online scammers, and use technical means to bypass the online scammer monitoring mechanism of the platform, allowing their own live broadcast rooms to rush to the front of the live broadcast platform's popularity list, thereby deceiving the platform into further traffic and user favor, disrupting the content order of the live broadcast platform while also deteriorating the platform's live broadcast quality.

These water army merchants bluntly stated that the traffic is clearly priced and the demand is very large.

What is even more shocking is that some top anchors are no longer satisfied with third-party water army organizations, but have invested huge amounts of money to build their own huge water army computer rooms in order to make stable profits from the water army in the long term, engaging in unfair competition.

In the "Net Clean 2022" special operation carried out by the public security organs, as of the end of December 2022, the police had investigated 83,000 related cases, of which more than 550 involved "Internet water army" and 5.37 million "Internet water army" accounts had been closed during the operation.

From the Anti-Unfair Competition Law to the Clean Network Operation, relevant agencies are identifying the chaos that should not exist, such as water armies, fake orders, and malicious reports, in the vast flow of information. Live streaming is both content and business, and it should have a clear space.

04Information security still has many loopholes

In addition, this 315 Gala also focused on information security issues.

These include "cloud conference screen sharing being exploited by unscrupulous elements", "personal information protection of electronic products", and information leakage caused by cracked versions of APP.

In the "Personal Information Protection of Electronic Products", 315 actual tests found that some mobile phones did not delete information cleanly, and when restoring factory settings, some mobile phones did not format the mobile phone storage files by default, and required manual checking, which resulted in consumers still facing the risk of information leakage.

Overall, this year's 315 focused on the live streaming e-commerce industry, especially the consumption traps targeting elderly consumers.

The mobile Internet has a clear trend of sinking, and coupled with the booming live streaming industry, many chaos have occurred, which requires vigilance from all walks of life.

The drama has come to an end, and now it depends on how the platforms and industries develop in a standardized manner.

Source: WeChat public account "AI Lanmeihui (ID: lanmeih001)"