The issue of private “miracle medicine” has been repeatedly exposed. Some unscrupulous merchants use WeChat groups, corporate WeChat, mini programs and other media to exaggerate the efficacy of health products in a relatively private and closed range to deceive elderly consumers. Some readers and netizens said that if they or those around them fall into such scams, they will not only suffer financial losses, but may also damage their health.
What is even more worrying is that some merchants who market private “miracle medicines” can still change their appearance and continue to sell “miracle medicines” after being exposed and punished.
Why is the private “magic medicine” so deceptive? Why do some businesses recover after being hit? Journalists launched an investigation.
Why do you believe in “miracle medicine”?
Understand the psychological needs of the elderly, combine light and dark, and mix true and false
"One order is 15,000, which is all pension money." A few months ago, Mr. Yan, a reader in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, went home to visit his mother and found many express cartons piled up in the house, with boxes of ointments inside. When I asked, I found out that I bought it from a live broadcast room. The merchant claimed that it can cure many common diseases of the elderly such as "three highs" and cerebral infarction.
Is it such a god? Mr. Yan checked the instructions and found that these diseases were not included in the "functions and indications". After taking his mother's mobile phone and looking at it, he saw the private live streaming software, the health group, the "health assistant" who asked for help, the expired "health course" link... He realized that this was the private "miracle medicine" that had been exposed by the media, so he complained to the relevant departments.
With the assistance of relevant departments, they successfully obtained the refund. But Mr. Yan is still worried because the drug-selling agency is still there, and his mother still doesn’t believe that the “experts” and “assistants” deceived her. "I work out of town and can't always be with my mother. What if she is cheated again?" Mr. Yan said, "I don't understand why my mother would rather believe a liar than me."
"What the elderly believe in is not necessarily the product, but a long-term relationship." Shen Qi, a professor at the Institute of Aging at Fudan University, once led a research team and found that many elderly people sincerely regard anchors as friends. "Businesses are often able to gain trust because they meet the three psychological needs of the elderly: they want to be healthy, they want someone to care about them, and they want to be able to handle things in life independently," Shen Qi said.
Anchors or "health assistants" are usually very concerned about the physical condition of the elderly and often introduce "health knowledge". Some even help run errands and solve life problems. This satisfies the first two requirements. In addition, the elderly can also have a sense of fulfillment and control by listening to lectures and buying medicines. An old man told reporters: "Listening to a little health knowledge every day feels like an improvement. Moreover, if I take good care of my body, I won't have to go to the hospital all the time, and I won't hold my children back."
"This long-term relationship cannot be changed immediately by writing an article to refute rumors." Shen Qi said.
In addition to understanding the psychology of elderly consumers, merchants also strive to establish an authoritative and credible persona for themselves. The reporter found that they showed two styles in the private domain and the public domain. In the private domain, concealment is strived to be enhanced. Newcomers often have to go through multiple steps such as "offline contact or acquaintance introduction - joining the WeChat group - receiving a link or QR code - entering a specific live broadcast room." Some live broadcast rooms also set invitation codes, limit viewers, and change links at any time. But that doesn’t mean they don’t do anything in the public domain. On the contrary, many businesses are quite active in public to endorse and attract traffic to the private domain.
Under the guidance of "experts" and "little assistants", Wang Xie's (pseudonym) mother purchased more than 120 bottles of "XX ointment" at a cost of nearly 50,000 yuan. The merchant claims that this medicine can quickly cure more than 10 diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, stroke and hemiplegia. Wang Xie's mother felt heart discomfort after taking it.
Wang Xie said that the appearance of "Lao Shi", the speaker of the private live broadcast room, on the TV station increased the confusion. "Old Shi" claimed to be the successor of the imperial doctor, and developed "such and such ointment" based on the palace's secret recipe. A certain TV station aired several advertisements in which he appeared, but they were packaged into talk shows. Comparing "Shi Lao"'s public advertisements and internal promotional materials, he speaks more conservatively on TV. It is difficult for fans to find the difference between the two. They simply think that "Shi Lao" is on TV, which is equivalent to being endorsed by the media, and they believe more in what he said in the private live broadcast room.
There are numerous examples of the public domain providing traffic and cover for the private domain: Some netizens saw a TV health program, scanned the QR code on the screen to learn about health knowledge, but jumped to corporate WeChat and were recommended a plant drink that was said to be able to cure chronic diseases in the elderly; some netizens saw a blogger Popularize scientific medical knowledge, ask questions via private messages, and be led to add WeChat and spend tens of thousands of yuan to buy "magic medicine" for weight loss; some businesses often organize free clinic activities to create a responsible corporate image and are praised by relevant local departments, but they promote and sell "miracle medicine" in the private sector...
The "half true and half false" approach is also often used. The food, medicine, and health care products purchased by many consumers are qualified in themselves, but their efficacy is arbitrarily exaggerated. For example, some health products are marketed in compliance with regulations, but are promoted by private live broadcasts as being able to treat diseases such as "three highs", heart disease, and even cancer; some "experts" have real physician identities, but their honorary titles are fake; their practice registration information is found, but they fabricate identities such as "inheriters of a certain therapy" and "family of royal doctors" in private live broadcast rooms. This has led some consumers to conduct background checks without knowing the full truth, and instead trust the merchants more.
Why is it so difficult to cut off the roots?
There is no such person or insufficient evidence in the investigation, and the industrial chain has not been cut off.
In the messages and letters, "cannot be contacted", "investigation suspended" and "mediation terminated" are high-frequency words.
Sometimes, regulatory authorities are unable to contact merchants. The father of netizen Wu Qi (pseudonym) purchased an over-the-counter drug on a private platform in July this year. Customer service said it could treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, liver disease, kidney disease, rheumatism and other diseases. "My dad spent more than 50,000 yuan. But it was just a medicine to treat anemia. The other party was completely false." Wu Qi complained to the relevant departments and provided the name and address of the company. Law enforcement officers quickly rushed to the scene for inspection, but found that the registered contact information could not be contacted, and the person was not found at the registered business address. Relevant local departments responded to Wu Qi: "It is impossible to verify the situation of the parties involved, their stores and related products on the platform" and "because the whereabouts of the parties involved are unknown... our bureau has suspended the investigation in accordance with the law."
Sometimes, consumers cannot provide strong evidence. Law enforcement officers went to the site for inspection and found that the product itself was qualified, and even the institutions and staff were qualified, but consumers did not have "real evidence." Yang Wenming, associate professor at the School of Economics and Law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, believes that false propaganda in the private sector has problems such as "difficulty in discovering, fixing, and assigning blame." Because they operate in the private domain, illegal activities are very hidden and difficult to detect. False propaganda is often presented verbally. After the live broadcast ends, the link becomes invalid, the replay is closed, the group chat is disbanded, and the account is changed. It is often difficult for consumers to fully prove the promises made by the operator with just a photo of the product or a screenshot of the payment. The core evidence is instantaneous and difficult to fix. In addition, some consumers are elderly, and their ability to obtain electronic evidence is even more inadequate. In addition, the transaction chain is artificially split and electronic evidence is scattered. Private domain marketing involves multiple entities. The operator of the live broadcast room, the producer, seller, live broadcaster, and transaction payee may all be different entities. Publicity, orders, payments, logistics, and after-sales records are scattered in the hands of different entities. When problems arise, all parties blame each other, making it difficult to identify the responsible party.
Some people also reported that some private domain "magic medicines" were exposed or punished in the past, but soon changed their appearance and continued to attract followers.
Reader Han Xu (pseudonym), whose mother suffered from cancer, spent more than 40,000 yuan on a batch of products that claimed to be able to "regulate cancer cells." In fact, it's just a regular drink. Han Xu discovered that this product had been exposed by the media as false propaganda before, and the companies involved were punished. Nowadays, the dealer has changed, but the manufacturer is the same, the shipping location is similar, and the promotional rhetoric is also highly similar. He suspected that this was the same group of people who had changed their "vests".
Relevant sources revealed that this situation does exist, and the crux lies in the industrial chain. Currently, stores or accounts receive more attention, but they are only the end of the entire industry chain. In fact, suppliers, private live broadcast platforms, "program" production teams and other links have division of labor and cooperation, but are also relatively independent. If we only attack one of the end nodes, the trading team and matching mechanism behind it will still be there. If one "miracle medicine" is eliminated, a new "miracle medicine" will still appear.
Netizen Xiao Xu participated in a so-called "health education private domain operation" project. During the onboarding training, the person in charge told him that the real purpose of the project was to allow the elderly to purchase health care products. To do this, it was necessary to obtain their WeChat accounts, age and other information. The specific method was to establish health files and provide personalized services, and let the elderly fill in their own and family members' information. With such a foundation, the company can cooperate with suppliers who need to open up sales through matching mechanisms such as groups and exhibitions.
"They call this 'dusting'. In the industry, some people sell products, some sell tools, some sell traffic, and some sell information. Everyone gets what they need." Xiao Xu said, "Like an earthworm, only a small part is cut off, but the main body is still there and can be regenerated."
How to solve the problem?
Full-chain, cross-regional governance, using “good money” to drive out “bad money”
How to solve the problem? Many experts believe that private domain "miracle medicine" scams are becoming more "professional" and organized, and they should carefully study how they use information, emotions and social relationships to influence consumer judgment and prescribe the right medicine.
Private domain "magic medicine" has the characteristics of chain operation, so governance cannot only focus on a single brand or store, but must strengthen systematicity and coordination. Yang Wenming believes that law enforcement should be extended to the entire organizational chain, focusing on the acquisition of training courseware, unified scripts, investment materials, commission settlements and supply records; the production end, brand operators, and live broadcast service agencies will be held accountable based on the actual degree of participation, which not only prevents the real organizers from being invisible, but also avoids indiscriminate expansion of upstream responsibilities.
In addition, cross-regional and cross-department case coordination needs to be improved. Private domain live broadcasts often involve platforms, anchors, warehouses, sales companies and victimized consumers belonging to different regions. Mechanisms for clue transfer, evidence assistance, and case consultation between market supervision, Internet information, drug supervision, health and other departments and public security agencies should be strengthened to reduce repeated complaints from consumers in multiple places. Those suspected of committing crimes such as fraud, illegal business operations, or the production and sale of counterfeit and substandard drugs should be transferred in accordance with the law; at the same time, general false propaganda cannot be treated as criminal fraud indiscriminately.
There have been some active explorations in these aspects. In Shanghai, in order to solve the problem of evidence collection in private scenes, the Minhang District Procuratorate invited volunteers with experience in communication technology, food, medicine, etc., to watch online private live broadcasts under the guidance of prosecutors, participate in "internal tastings" in offline stores, and help secure a complete chain of evidence. In the end, six illegal operators were punished.
In Henan, a company was suspected of false advertising. During the verification process, the companies involved resisted the investigation by changing their legal representatives, moving their registered addresses, and shutting down communication equipment. The market supervision department launched a penetrating supervision mechanism to check the capital flow and transaction chain of related accounts, and identify the illegal facts of the company involved; then, it teamed up with the market supervision departments of other provinces to conduct surprise inspections of manufacturers and seized evidence such as warehouse delivery orders and sales details.
Laws and regulations are also gradually improving. Yang Wenming introduced that Article 24 of the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Live Streaming E-commerce" implemented in February this year provides basic provisions for private domain live broadcasts, requiring other network service providers to perform corresponding identity verification, information reporting, illegal handling, transaction information preservation, assistance in rights protection, and cooperation with law enforcement obligations based on the network business premises, transaction matching, information release and other services they actually provide.
"It is said to be a private domain, but the stores can be seen on the street and are not hidden. Some 'brands' have been complained by many people, and there are hundreds of related videos. They have been provided to relevant departments, but they still say there is no evidence. If merchants make false propaganda without having to pay the price, they will become more and more bold." Chengdu, Sichuan Reader An Li said that it is well known that it is difficult to obtain evidence for private domain "miracle medicine", but there are some clues and the investigation conditions are relatively mature. Relevant departments should take proactive measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and severely crack down on typical cases of private domain live broadcast fraud to serve as a "fine for one to serve as a warning".
Many readers also pointed out that to resist the "miracle medicine" in the private sector, we need to pay more attention to the elderly and understand their needs. The elderly care about their health and want to improve their physical condition, which are normal consumer needs. The development of the silver economy is also inseparable from these needs. The key is to meet their needs with truly effective products and services.
"For the elderly, living alone, and those suffering from chronic diseases, community health service centers, family doctors, and grassroots elderly care service agencies can provide more trustworthy health consultation channels." Shen Qi believes that governance should not just focus on the box of medicines sold, but should pay attention to the entire marketing process, use truly high-quality grassroots health services and emotional companionship, and use "good money" to drive out "bad money."
Reporter Shen Tongrui
