People suffered from WeChat Official Accounts Scam

As WeChat’s Official Account becomes one of the most popular platforms for companies, organizations, and individuals (such as Cartoonists, movie critics) to set up public accounts to write content. Its purpose is to transmit different cultures and knowledge. But some people take advantage of loopholes in it, and then problems such as fraud and deception and MLM (multi-level marketing) scams starts showing up. 

Since WeChat stores launched official accounts, some unscrupulous merchants opening official accounts to sell fake commodities just for earning profits. They know what is recently popular no matter in fashion or other commodities, for men or women, and from North America to Asia. Then they look for factories which produce the same out looking products with less cost and poorer quality. They sell the fake ones to people who thought they are the certified products and make large amount of profits. When selling those products, sellers take delicate photos for them with a lower price to post on the account to drive people to buy their products. However, the real products the buyers receive are always inferior.  

Some others open MLM accounts to swindle people. Their main path to profitability is to pull people into their membership in the name of sales promotion and charge them the admission fee. Network MLM usually has no fixed office address, industry and trade business is very difficult to deal with. Reporter Shen (2016) asks, “People with a little modern financial knowledge, for such financial MLM scam, it should be easy to identify. But why are there so many people cheated?” The reason is, the MLM on WeChat spreads by friends, families and relatives. For example, A company wants to sell their products. They find some people to work for them. These people sell the products to their friends, families, and relatives and they get the percentage of the sales. If any of their friends or families also want to work for the company, they can join in, too. Since the company is recommended by the families and friends and they work as a very close group, people always relax on the alert. Wang (2013) states 5 signs you may want to consider before you sign up for an MLM program:
 “Focus is more on Recruiting than Selling”;
 “Poor Training”;
 “pressure to pay for more”;
 “sales tactics brought to bear on you”; 
 “seems too good to be true”.

Some of the accounts even spread the false message to the public. Some official accounts publish articles such as “You Will Get Cancer If Cook with Running Water!”, people believed in this message and forward the article in their Moment, friends see that and forward again. As a result, these official accounts increase their followers and become well known. After that, they start to use all kinds of means to make profits from their followers. Deceitful official accounts always find ways to let people forward their articles. Other examples can be: “Do U Have a Friend Named XXX? Forward for Him/Her and He/She Will Bring U Good Luck Today”; “Already Have Six Drivers Reported to the Police! Don’t Open Your Car Window If Someone Holding a Name Card and Knock On Yours. Cause A Knife Hidden Behind the Card. They Will Cut Your Face and Rob U! Watch Out!”. Of course, they are all rumors and the only purpose is to gain followers.

From data collected, there are 10 million Official Accounts, and 700,000 WeChat articles published every day (Walkthechat, 2016). Before we follow an official account or forward an article, it is important to have a clear mind and distinguish if they are doing the right thing or telling the truth.





Reference

Xiao Shen. (2016, Sep 21). WeChat group for the training of illegal financial 
     MLM stealth circle of friends. Journal of China Direct Selling News. 
     http://en.cndsn.com.cn/headline-news/2016/0621/2958.html

Jim Wang. (2103, Jan 28).  5 Signs that MLM “Opportunity” Might Be a 
     Scam. Business Insider Retrieved from 
     http://www.businessinsider.com/5-signs-that-mlm opportunity-might-
     be-a-scam-2013-1

Walkthechat. (2016, Mar). WeChat impact report 2016: all the latest 
     WeChat data–WalktheChat. WalktheChat. Retrieved from 
     https://walkthechat.com/wechat-impact-report-2016/