China News Service, January 19. According to the website of the China Consumers Association, since last year, some criminals have been using the banners of relevant departments and the China Consumers Association to pretend to be staff of the China Consumers Association and take advantage of consumers' eagerness to refund their money. , on the pretext of refunding the course fees of education and training institutions, they induced consumers to transfer money by purchasing "treasury bills", "funds" and "securities" and committed fraud, causing serious damage to consumers' property.
This behavior seriously infringes on consumer property safety and is suspected of being a crime.
The China Consumers Association issued public statements on similar incidents on January 18, June 7, and July 27, 2023, reminding consumers to prevent being deceived and notifying relevant departments of the situation.
Recently, some consumers still report being deceived.
To this end, the China Consumers Association solemnly issued a consumer warning:
Anyone who asks for payment before refunding is a scam!
Consumers must keep their “money bags” tight and be wary of any fraudulent behavior that requires repayment of fees to purchase related products.
According to reports from consumers, criminals usually pretend to be staff of the China Consumers Association to establish contact with consumers, induce consumers to join the refund QQ group of relevant education and training institutions, and download the suspected illegal APP designated by them.
This type of APP often has a built-in group chat function. After consumers enter the group chat, criminals require consumers to purchase treasury bills in order to get a refund. There are also criminals pretending to be "refunding users" to post information about successful refunds.
Once a consumer is deceived into purchasing treasury bills and completing the transfer, the criminals will freeze the consumer's APP account on the grounds of "operational error" and require the consumer to make another large transfer and purchase more "treasury bills" to unblock the account.
If consumers have doubts about the above steps, criminals will also provide consumers with the complaint consultation phone number and address published by the China Consumers Association on its official website, and even mislead consumers into going to the China Consumers Association to receive refunds.
As a result of the above-mentioned behavior, consumers not only did not receive the training fees that should be refunded, but were defrauded by criminals and suffered double losses.
The China Consumers Association strongly condemns such despicable behavior and reminds consumers to keep their eyes open and beware of being deceived.
At the same time, we call on relevant departments to attach great importance to consumers' demands and strictly investigate and deal with such fraud cases to form an effective deterrent.
The China Consumers Association is a public welfare social organization established in accordance with the law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. It does not engage in commodity operations or for-profit services, and does not recommend goods and services to consumers by charging fees or other profit-seeking methods.
The Consumers Association is a mediation agency for consumer disputes and never charges any fees for handling consumer disputes.