Parking for just a few cents a day? Shanghai white-collar worker’s “coupon clipping” leads to trouble...
[2] Compiled from: Shandong High Court
For just a few cents, could you park a car for a whole day in a garage at a mall in Shanghai's Wujiaochang business district? This year, this case drew considerable attention because this white-collar worker's "fleece wool" scheme led to a fraud conviction, resulting in a sentence of five months' criminal detention, suspended for five months, by the Shanghai Yangpu District People's Court.
Case review
Born in 1991, Li Moumou was a young white-collar worker near Wujiaochang. Between August and December 2020, to park for free at the Hesheng Hui complex, he exploited the parking discount policy for new members on the "Heshengtong" mobile app by using a large number of fake phone numbers to register new members for points, then exchanging those points for free parking time, defrauding the parking fee of over 5,000 RMB in total.
Li Moumou is not the only one doing this. Earlier this year, the Hesheng Hui shopping mall received complaints from consumers stating that they had never been to the mall, yet their phone numbers were registered as members and linked to unfamiliar vehicles. After an internal investigation, the mall found over 120 vehicles in the same situation. Statistics after the incident revealed that in 2020 alone, hundreds of people working nearby used illegal methods to obtain parking discounts from the mall, resulting in a loss of nearly 370,000 yuan in parking fees for the mall that year.
These individuals used an app called "Ju Ma Jie Ma," which allows the purchase of random phone numbers and verification codes. For just one or two cents, they could obtain a new phone number from the app, use it to register as a mall member, and receive the mall's new member parking discount. This was the method used by locals to "fleece the system." For as little as 0.8 yuan or up to 1.6 yuan, they could park at the mall for eight hours, which would normally cost 80 yuan.
Article 266 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China
Whoever defrauds public or private property, if the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined; if the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have property confiscated.
[1] The author's perspective
In recent years, due to vulnerabilities in online platform systems, cases of numerous netizens "fleecing the system" have become common. However, some "fleeces" yield benefits, while others not only cannot be taken but may even violate the law if attempted.
Regarding this case, netizens have varying opinions. Some believe the mall's economic losses stem from its own new user benefits and should not be blamed on the "fleece party." But the author argues that the key point of this case is that the "fleece party" used third-party software to obtain others' phone numbers, then registered as new mall users to enjoy parking discounts. This act of stealing others' phone numbers is inherently illegal. Even if the mall's software offers new user benefits, the "fleece party" using others' phones constitutes fraud against the mall, and the cumulative amount they fleeced over time is significant. Thus, whether "fleeceing" is reasonable depends not only on the appropriateness of the method but also on the reasonableness of the frequency and amount.
In addition, the author believes that although program code and software platforms are composed of cold symbols, they are also a manifestation of human will and connect relationships between people. Therefore, even though software has no life, it cannot be used illegally. The "wool party" cannot use this as an excuse to cross the red line of the law.
