4 Suspects Charged with Computer Crime for 'Paid Deletion of Negative Reviews'

TapTechNews September 12th news, according to the report of CCTV News today, due to the use of illegal plug-in software paid deletion of negative reviews, involving illegal intrusion into computer information systems. On September 5th, the Guangling Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against four suspects such as Wen and others on suspicion of providing tools for programs that intrude into computer information systems; Meng was charged with the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. Eventually, the court sentenced five people including Wen to prison terms ranging from one year to three years, with probation and fines.

TapTechNews summarizes the case process:

At the end of last year, a food delivery platform reported that there were abnormal customer comment data in the local backstage in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, with suspicion of maliciously changing negative reviews.

After the police investigation, it was found that a group used the illegally developed plug-in software to obtain negative review buyer data (including the buyer's virtual phone number and related contact information) and contacted the customers, and asked the customers to delete the relevant negative reviews by communicating compensation.

Upon investigation, from 2021 to 2022, people like Meng used the illegally developed plug-in software to obtain negative review buyer order data and carried out the paid deletion of negative reviews business. People like Wen and Xue sold to others software with the function of illegally obtaining and querying food delivery negative review users in the form of monthly cards and quarterly cards, illegally obtaining more than 200,000 yuan.

According to the police disclosure, inducing consumers to delete negative reviews by giving property or other benefits does not itself constitute a criminal offense, but violates the relevant laws and regulations of e-commerce operations, disrupts the normal business order, and violates the right to know of consumers. The communication deletion of negative reviews behavior involved in this case illegal intrusion into computer information systems.