This year's Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with the National Day Golden Week, and railway ticket sales have reached a peak. Many passengers who didn't get tickets pinned their hopes on the waitlist function of 12306. Recently, a number of bloggers wearing similar railway uniforms have appeared on the short video platform, teaching so-called "tips on waitlisting": some claim that by constantly sending messages in the background of the 12306 public account, they can be successfully waitlisted in 15 minutes; others guide passengers to use third-party ticketing apps to synchronize orders, claiming to be able to "predict the time of ticket issuance." What kind of traps are hidden behind these fake and real tricks?
Is the "Tips for Waiting for Tickets" Really Reliable?
On the short video platform, several bloggers wearing similar railway uniforms shared so-called "tips for waiting for tickets".
A blogger: Have you all got your tickets? Let me teach you a little method to succeed in fifteen minutes. The first step is to search for the 12306 public account and follow it. The second step is to send your waitlist information and directly say that I need to be waitlisted. Please let me waitlist successfully. Then fill in your waiting list number and train number, and send it several times. Students who are still anxiously waiting for a replacement, hurry up and give it a try.
There are also bloggers who are promoting third-party apps, saying that using their apps has a higher chance of success on the waiting list. It also has an AI prediction function that can accurately predict the time of grabbing tickets to what time it is on a certain day.
A blogger: Friends who are still on the waiting list, please don’t waste any more money. If you want to check the specific issuance time of your ticket, you can enter a few numbers on the software, then import your order at 12306, and you can see the ticket issuance time.
The reporter found that some videos had a large number of likes and collections on multiple platforms. In the comment area, many netizens left messages saying that they had followed the instructions, and some people, under the guidance of bloggers, had transferred to third-party platforms to purchase so-called standby and accelerated services.
Reporters found on the Black Cat Complaint Platform that many passengers have encountered trouble because of their credulous trust in the "standby synchronization" service of third-party platforms. Ms. Liu from Beijing reported that after she canceled her waitlist on the third-party platform, the other party actually took it upon herself to cancel her waitlist order on the 12306 official system.
Ms. Li from Zhejiang first synchronized her ticket order on a third-party platform, and then bought other tickets on the 12306 App. Then she took the initiative to cancel the previous standby order on 12306. However, the third-party platform did not perform the "cancel" operation and instead snatched the ticket for Ms. Li. As a result, Ms. Li also lost a refund fee.
12306 refuted rumors many times: never cooperated with a third party
Reporters saw on such third-party ticket-grabbing apps that the so-called alternate butler not only prompted the "estimated travel resolution rate", but also had a dedicated "exclusive engine for picking up missing tickets" and "a dedicated ticket-grabbing engine" for users to choose from. Some claim to be low-price ticket grabbing, professional ticket grabbing, and after-sales guarantee; some apps have hosting level options, showing that high-level hosting has a 24-hour dedicated person to monitor the remaining tickets, and can also monitor additional trains.
In fact, Railway 12306 has repeatedly refuted rumors that buying tickets through third-party platforms will not only not speed up the process, but will instead cause new problems. On September 19, the "China Railway" public account issued a statement stating that since the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday transportation train tickets went on sale, Railway 12306 has put a total of 7.117 million transactions into the slow queue and refused to issue 1.331 million tickets, curbing malicious ticket grabbing behavior.
12306 specially reminds passengers that they must use official channels such as the "Railway 12306" official website and mobile client to purchase tickets. 12306 has never cooperated with any third-party platform organization, and there are no additional charges such as ticket purchase acceleration packages, ticket purchase membership fees, carriage seat selection fees, etc. Ticket changes and refunds are handled strictly in accordance with regulations, and at the same time, the security of passengers' personal information is strictly protected in accordance with the law. Purchasing tickets through third-party platforms will not only not increase the success rate, but will also make it slower or fail.
12306 customer service also stated that the claim that you can grab tickets by sending a message to the 12306 WeChat official account is completely false, and they have not cooperated with any third-party software.
Traffic drives “pseudo science popularization”
Supervision needs to be prepared for rainy days
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that content such as leaving a message on the 12306 background to speed up the waiting list is called "pseudo science popularization" in communication science. It is essentially a type of rumor, and what drives its continuous emergence is real traffic benefits.
After refuting the rumors many times, why are these realistically packaged “alternative strategies” banned repeatedly? Ma Liang, a professor at the School of Government at Peking University, analyzed that compared with traditional rumors, this type of content is more difficult to identify, and ordinary consumers can easily be fooled. And precisely because they are "edge balls" and constantly updated, both platform governance and regulatory crackdowns face considerable challenges.
Ma Liang, a professor at the School of Government at Peking University: Compared with traditional rumors, this type of rumor is highly concealed, confusing and realistic, and ordinary consumers may not be able to effectively identify it. Some bloggers wear uniforms that look like railway workers, which can be very confusing.
Ma Liang believes that "it's hard to get a ticket" during holidays is a cyclical phenomenon, and supervision can take precautions and intervene in advance.
The National Day holiday is approaching. Passengers are once again reminded: when buying tickets, please look for the official website and mobile client of "Railway 12306"; standby redemption is based on the order submitted, and there is never a so-called "accelerated channel." Faced with the "strategies" and "tricks" flying all over the sky, please be careful and don't let your travel anxiety become a traffic-harvesting business for others.
