In August 2023, du Hongyi was attracted by an advertisement on a short video platform featuring a white-haired woman in a cheongsam, claiming that retired middle-aged and elderly people could make money on the short video platform by learning video editing technology. Du Hongyi signed up through the advertising link.Playstrippokerlive"Yuanben School" five-day free video production course, and under the promotion of the course consultant, payPlaystrippokerlive2580 yuan was signed up for the advanced course. However, she soon found that the content of paid courses was similar to that of free courses and did not generate fan growth and benefits on the short video platform as promised.
Du Hongyi's request for a refund was delayed and eventually failed to get a refund. She is not alone in similar encounters. Huangchuan County police have accepted the case and found that tens of thousands of middle-aged and elderly people across the country have been cheated, involving hundreds of millions of yuan. At present, the main suspects involved in the case have been controlled by the public security organs.
Screenshots of the network platform of multiple students' reporting and enforcement orders.
The fraud gang took advantage of the middle-aged and elderly's unfamiliarity with Internet technology and their desire for Internet dividends to induce them to pay high tuition fees through false advertisements and promises of high profits. As a matter of fact, the courses offered have no real value and the refund promise has not been fulfilled. This incident not only brought economic losses to the middle-aged and elderly, but also had a serious impact on their mental health.
People from all walks of life expressed concern about this case, and called for strengthening legal education and network security training for the middle-aged and elderly, so as to improve their ability to identify and prevent network fraud. At the same time, government departments should strengthen supervision, severely crack down on online fraud, and establish a more perfect supervision mechanism and reporting system. In addition, the information flow platform should also strengthen the audit of advertising content to avoid similar fraud and provide security for the elderly to access the Internet.
