In recent years, online learning has become more and more popular. While the industry continues to grow and develop, it has also given rise to some chaos. Some so-called training institutions take advantage of consumers' eagerness to learn skills and start a business to create anxiety. Under the banner of "learning for free", they claim that they can achieve quick results and increase wealth in the short term. Is this kind of training reliable? Can you really learn skills without spending money and then make money? What routines are hidden in the so-called "zero-yuan science"?
Not long ago, Mr. Huang from Tianjin told reporters about his experience of participating in the "0 Yuan Study" twice. In May 2023, he accidentally entered a live broadcast of a Hunan company on an online platform. The live broadcast claimed that he could learn video editing for 0 yuan. Since he usually likes to post short videos on online platforms and hopes to do a side job in his spare time, Mr. Huang added the other party's WeChat account and joined a WeChat group to learn for free.
Mr. Huang said that the other party promised to create a small group of 10 people after registration, and the teacher would personally lead the small class teaching. Believing him to believe it, he quickly paid the registration fee of 2,990 yuan, and then the other party sent him a message called Quxue’s app account and password, and informed him of the time of each class.
Consumer Mr. Huang: is similar to online courses, recorded. Going in is like taking a big class, with hundreds of people studying together. The lecturer did not add me on WeChat or create a group. What he told me was completely different. Although
felt something was wrong, since he had already paid the money, he could only bite the bullet and continue learning on this app. Within two days, the other party sent Mr. Huang some short videos about life knowledge and asked him to forward them to his video account to try the effect. Unexpectedly, something magical happened.
Consumer Mr. Huang: If I watch this short video another day, the number of likes and followers will be tens of thousands, or even more than 100,000. It felt magical for the first time, and I was very happy. I will be able to make money in the future, and I am indeed very happy. The customer service said, it means your account is quite special and has potential, and I will let our dean or another expert guide you. The dean added the WeChat account and told you a lot about how to carry goods and display windows. He said that for another 29,000 yuan, I will directly create a live broadcast account for you. You don’t care about anything. I will prepare the goods and operate it for you. Then the money will be yours. At that time, I felt something was wrong.
Mr. Huang felt that just two days after taking the 2,990 yuan class, he was asked to pay another 29,800 yuan. Isn’t this an obvious routine? Realizing that he had been deceived, Mr. Huang began to demand a refund of the 2,990 yuan tuition fee. Unexpectedly, the money has not been returned. A few days later, Mr. Huang was once again pushed by this online platform to a "0 Yuan Learning" course from another Shenzhen company.
consumer Mr. Huang: made a short video on-site to set off fireworks. How to create the title? After making it, it was released. It was 8 o'clock. After 2 hours, we would see how many people liked it and how much income there was. At 10 o'clock, he opened it. The newly produced short video has really tens of thousands of likes and tens of thousands of views, and the background data has indeed received hundreds of dollars, so it brainwashed me for the second time. Why am I willing to take a gamble? This is where he did. The operation allows you to see and believe.
In recent years, with the popularity of short video platforms, more and more users have begun to earn income on the platform through tips, advertising, and live streaming. Videos with high likes and views can not only attract more users to watch, improve the recommendation of the platform, but also attract the attention of more fans, laying the foundation for subsequent commercial operations. Therefore, seeing that the video produced by the other party had such a high number of likes and views in a short period of time, Mr. Huang was unwilling to pay the registration fee of 2,992 yuan again.
Consumer Mr. Huang: When paid, he showed me the contract, which was completely different from the terms mentioned in his class. My heart was half cold, it was over, I was fooled again, and my money was wasted again.
After half a month of continuous complaints on the 12315 platform, Mr. Huang’s first tuition fee was finally refunded in half. But Mr. Huang was not so lucky the second time, and he did not get back a penny of the registration fee of nearly 3,000 yuan.
Mr. Huang’s experience is not an isolated case.The reporter browsed multiple online platforms and found that similar advertisements abound, and there are all kinds of advertisements, such as learning dubbing for 0 yuan, learning calligraphy for 0 yuan, learning the Yi Jing for 0 yuan... The reporter randomly clicked on an account whose main body is Beijing Times Guanghua Technology Co., Ltd. I edited a live class for 0 yuan for 5 days. After adding the so-called teacher on WeChat, I was pulled into a WeChat group. At 8pm on April 5, the class started.
After taking several classes, the reporter found that this live broadcast class, which was said to be about learning video editing, did not teach much about editing. Instead, it spent more time bragging about how profitable short videos and live broadcasts are. A few days into the course, the anchor spent most of his energy selling his 2,580 yuan paid course.
The reporter saw that many people who signed up in the group claimed to be retirees, mothers, and farmers. For some students who could not afford the money temporarily, the anchor even offered installment payment methods. Of course, many of them were not excluded. People are shills. Starting from the 4th day, when the other party saw that the reporter did not spend any money to sign up, he continued to send messages to the reporter from about 7 a.m. to about 1 a.m. every day. During this period, he also sent a long message, expressing emotion and reason. On the sixth day, the price was even reduced from 2,580 yuan to 1,980 yuan, trying to persuade reporters to sign up.
A reporter who opened the Black Cat Complaint Platform found that there were nearly 4,000 related complaints in the "0 Yuan Xue" entry. There are many reasons for complaints, but they always stick to the same theme. The early promotion of "0 Yuan Learning" and "0 Basic Learning" courses made these students pay for it in the end.
Wu Tao, professor at the Law School of Central University of Finance and Economics and expert member of the Expert Committee of the China Consumers Association: Facts have proved that is not 0 yuan. If it is 0 yuan, as an ordinary consumer, he will simply think that all courses are 0 yuan. Yuan. In fact, as a commercial organization, 0 yuan is just a trap dug to lure me into the community, and then constantly bombards me with various information to induce me to buy products with higher consumption. This process There is definitely something misleading in it.
Experts said that "buying for 0 yuan" and "learning for 0 yuan" are not illegal in themselves, but whether it is Mr. Huang's experience or the reporter's experience, the other party uses the bait of learning a certain skill for 0 yuan to attract students to take classes. Joining a group and then using false and exaggerated words to induce students to purchase paid courses has been suspected of violating the following laws and regulations.
Wu Tao, professor at the Law School of Central University of Finance and Economics and expert member of the Expert Committee of the China Consumers Association: For example, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law clearly stipulates that operators are not allowed to make false or misleading commercial propaganda. The Consumer Protection Law also has almost the same prohibitive provisions, and this behavior ultimately harms legitimate rights and interests such as consumers’ right to know and fair trade. In addition, there is another law that is also very targeted, and that is the Advertising Law. The Advertising Law prohibits false advertising. In addition, for the education and training industry, there is a special provision for their advertising, which cannot express or imply that it will affect the training effect. Make guaranteed promises.
In addition to violating the above laws and regulations, the reporter's investigation found that many online free training courses are very gimmick, but the training institutions often do not have qualifications and certificates, let alone the supervision and evaluation of the education department. Some courses have a patchwork of content that can be found by searching online, and some are suspected of illegal activities such as false propaganda, fraud, infringement of others' copyrights, and even involve illegal activities such as disguised loan sharking and soft-violence collection. Recently, the police have cracked several cases of "0 yuan learning" and similar types.
According to clues, Shanghai Fengxian police recently busted a criminal gang of 20 people. After investigation, it was found that since April last year, a technology company run by Lu and others had been taking editing courses for 0 yuan and earning high profits with short videos. The amount of profit is used as a gimmick to attract middle-aged and elderly people to buy so-called training courses.
Zhang Wentao, deputy detachment leader of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of Fengxian Public Security Bureau of Shanghai Public Security Bureau: These so-called training courses are all videos recorded by gang members after copying them from the Internet. The so-called package fans are just zombies purchased by the company. Pink, no buying volume will be generated at all.
In response to this case, the Shanghai police have frozen more than 10 million yuan in funds involved and taken criminal coercive measures against 20 suspects. Not long ago, the Longhua Branch of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau received a complaint about fraud in company operations. After police investigation, they discovered that the company was located in an office building in Longhua District, Shenzhen.
Police officer of the Criminal Police Brigade of Longhua Public Security Bureau of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau Xu Maofu: One is the sales department, one is the operations department, another is the after-sales department, and the last one is the teaching department, which is composed of four departments in total. The sales department is responsible for recruiting customers, and for operations, it helps these victims run online stores. But in fact, they are not very good at operations, so the company does not need many manpower in this area. It is mainly placed in the sales department. Their employees are just like normal Employees go to and from get off work in the same way, and there is no hint that this is a fraudulent company.
After obtaining conclusive evidence, the police handling the case decided to arrest this criminal gang. There is no free pie in the sky. If there is, it is probably a trap. Industry insiders said that for the "0 yuan learning" training routine, consumers must first continuously improve their screening capabilities and legal awareness. If you find that your legitimate rights and interests have been infringed, you should promptly complain to the Consumers Association or report to the regulatory authorities. In addition, the online platform that publishes information should also effectively assume regulatory responsibilities.
online training is convenient, fast, rich in content, and often relatively cheap. For consumers, it is a good way to learn. However, online training is also a mixed bag, and there are many tricks like "0 Yuan Learning" that mislead consumers and even commit fraud to make profits. When choosing online training, consumers must improve their screening capabilities and legal awareness, platforms must assume regulatory responsibilities, and relevant departments must increase supervision and enforcement efforts and punish violations in accordance with the law. Only in this way can the online training industry grow healthily and allow more people to Many consumers benefit from it.
editor | Xue Chen Chen Fengxin
videography | Xi Ming
editing | Zhou Wei
planning | Niu Yanmin
