[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
 
Recently, Shanghai police dismantled a fraud gang that "promoted high-priced pipe unclogging agents under the guise of unclogging pipes to make huge profits," arresting 37 suspects and involving over 6 million yuan in the case. Under the gang's "operation," consumers often had to pay 3,000 to 5,000 yuan for pipe unclogging services, with the highest single charge reaching 19,000 yuan.

 
 

Case review
One late night in August this year, Mr. Cao, a Shanghai resident, had a clogged toilet. Eager to solve the problem, he opened 58.com.

 

Among the various options, "Shentong Company," prominently labeled with "24-hour service," "free inspection," and "70 yuan per visit," seemed to meet Mr. Cao's needs, so he promptly ordered their door-to-door drain cleaning service. An hour later, a repairman arrived at his home for a "free inspection" and quickly offered two solutions: one was to break open the floor tiles late at night to inspect the pipes; the other was to use a professional drain cleaner priced at 485 yuan per bottle.

To avoid disturbing the neighbors and restore the toilet as soon as possible, Mr. Cao chose the second option. The repairman quickly took out the drain cleaner from his bag and poured five bottles into the pipe. Feeling that the cost was too high for such usage, Mr. Cao tried to stop the repairman from proceeding further, but the repairman immediately said, "No charge if it doesn't work," and then poured in another five bottles of drain cleaner, using a machine to clear the blockage. In just 10 minutes, the drain was unclogged, costing a total of 4,850 yuan.

Similar to Mr. Cao, Ms. Wang, another Shanghai resident, also encountered exorbitant drain cleaning fees. "He (the repairman) told me to boil some hot water for the cleaning," Ms. Wang recalled. Shortly after she went to the kitchen to boil water and returned to the bathroom, she saw "drain cleaner bottles scattered all over the floor, at least a dozen of them."

Earlier, the repairman had shown her the cleaning agent he used, which was priced at four to five hundred yuan on Taobao's "official store." Ms. Wang had no choice but to accept the loss, spending over 5,000 yuan on this toilet unclogging. However, it wasn't until the police solved the case and contacted Ms. Wang that she realized she had been scammed.
 
 
《[1] The People's Republic of China刑法》
Article 266 [Fraud Crime]
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. Where this Law otherwise provides, such provisions shall prevail.
 
 
[1] The author's perspective
Many people have likely had similar experiences of being cheated in household services like pipe unclogging. In fact, these scammers' methods are not sophisticated. They first use low-price promotions on online platforms to attract customers. When performing on-site repairs, they exploit information asymmetry, deliberately send consumers away, use large amounts of unclogging agents, and finally present customers with exorbitant bills. The entire process is packaged with smooth talk to seem reasonable, without any coercion, making it easy for consumers to fall for the scam.
 
However, we can't help but wonder: this type of fraud relies on online platforms like 58.com to operate. Once or twice might be understandable, but with hundreds of sales, why are there so few negative reviews? Why can such fraudulent links still exist? Speaking of this, we must mention the platform's regulatory obligations. Although merchants use technical means like deleting negative reviews to maintain high ratings, there are consumers who have complained to the platform. When these consumers submit negative reviews and complaints, the platform should take them seriously, rather than leaving such a disreputable merchant on the platform to deceive more consumers. It can be said that in this matter, the platform's inaction actually provided fertile ground for the fraud group's "growth." Because the platform failed to fulfill its duties, it not only encouraged this illegal behavior that harms society and the public but also caused 58.com's reputation to plummet again—from a once all-purpose platform to today's mixed bag. What 58.com needs to do is not marketing to whitewash its image, but to calmly examine itself and truly serve the people.