The annual Consumer Rights Day Gala has brought to light several fraudulent activities affecting consumers. One prominent scheme involves fake stock recommendation services. Fraudsters pose as legitimate financial advisors, offering profit-sharing arrangements on stock picks. If the recommended stocks rise, they demand a share of the profits; if the stocks fall, they disappear. A company called Xin Ben Ke was specifically cited, where the owner personally selects stocks for clients. The business model relies on the probability that some stocks will rise, allowing the company to collect profits while abandoning clients who incur losses.
Another exposed practice involves manipulating AI models. Service providers offer GEO (Guaranteed Engine Optimization) services, claiming they can ensure a client's product appears as a top result or a "standard answer" when users query major AI models. This is achieved by flooding the internet with promotional articles that the AI systems then crawl and incorporate. Operators noted that maintaining this manipulation requires continuously feeding the AI models with relevant soft content, creating a data poisoning pipeline.
The investigation also highlighted violations of new national standards for electric bicycles. Rental companies, including Ha Luo, are reportedly circumventing speed restrictions. Some dealers acquired licenses for bicycles before production, then manufactured them to pre-regulation standards after the new rules took effect. Another company, Dian Lv Ge, openly admitted to registering electric mopeds as bicycles using purchased licenses, allowing them to illegally remove speed limits.
In the health sector, private marketing schemes are targeting elderly consumers with massive markups. Companies purchase low-cost drugs or supplements, create fake health seminar videos, and sell them through private social media channels. One common drug was sold at nearly five times the market price after its effects were exaggerated. A manager from Da Hong International advised partners to lay low until after the Consumer Rights Day period, describing the practice as a "gray area."
Furthermore, so-called "height-increasing" institutions were exposed for preying on parents' anxieties. Chains like An Li Shen and De Ji Rui promise guaranteed height growth for teenagers with refunds if ineffective. Executives privately admitted that since teenagers grow naturally, the programs cannot be proven ineffective. These centers also fraudulently claim they can increase height even in adults whose growth plates have closed.
The gala also targeted the unregulated "exosome" beauty product market. Marketed as a revolutionary anti-aging treatment, these products lack official approval for sale or medical use in China. One manufacturer, Hao Lin (Tianjin) Biotechnology, admitted to using a collagen product license to disguise its exosome product, which is illegally produced and sold with exaggerated claims of treating diseases.
Lastly, an investigation into a popular chicken foot brand revealed appalling production conditions. At a facility processing for Shu Fu Xiang, chicken feet were found stored directly on dirty, wet floors, stepped on by workers, and cleaned with industrial-strength hydrogen peroxide for whitening. The use of hydrogen peroxide, which can damage health, is prohibited in food processing.
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