Yangcheng Evening News reporter Xie Yangliu Chen Liang
In the field of plug-in software, there are three "artifacts": train ticketing software, mobile game auxiliary software and red envelope grabbing plug-in software. Compared with the first two "artifacts", for the average person, the "presence" of the plug-in software for grabbing red envelopes (hereinafter referred to as "red envelope artifact") is low, and it will not be specially installed unless it is deeply obsessed with WeChat grabbing red envelopes.
However, a recent news has pushed the red envelope artifact to the forefront: Tencent sued the red envelope grabbing software. According to the report, Tencent listed the "three sins" of this kind of software: destroying the order of the transportation and management of WeChat red packets, stealing the personal information of WeChat users and intercepting the commercial resources of WeChat platform. According to the reporter’s observation, the red envelope artifact may have a "fourth sin": it is used to gamble on WeChat group.
Some functions of investigation can be used to cheat in gambling.
In order to understand the operation mode of the red envelope artifact, the reporter installed a software called "WeChat Auto-grabbing Red Envelope Artifact" in an application market. After opening the permissions such as message reminder according to its operation manual, the reporter asked colleagues to send red envelopes in the WeChat group. As soon as the red envelopes appeared, they were automatically grabbed. However, the software is relatively simple and only has the function of automatically grabbing red envelopes. In another application market, the reporter installed a software called "Lei Hang grabs the red envelope artifact".
On the software page, the reporter found some functions that may be used for gambling. For example, in the "Minesweeping and Mine Burying" function area, there are functions such as mantissa control, grabbing a leopard, grabbing a straight, and grabbing a cow and a cow. These functions are all called WeChat gambling underground slang. It is worth noting that above these functions, there is also a special reminder that "this software is only for entertainment and is prohibited from being used for gambling".
As early as 2017, the reporter had made an unannounced visit to such WeChat gambling groups. In the group, the dealer sends out red envelopes and the player grabs them. The unit number is set as "Lei" in advance, and those who grab the red envelopes with the amount of "Lei" need to pay the dealer at a certain odds. The role of the red envelope artifact is to cheat in the gambling of "burying mines and clearing mines".
In addition to gambling, the red envelope artifact is also suspected of stealing user information and endangering users’ mobile phones. After the reporter opens this kind of software, once he enters the WeChat page, the mobile phone will lose control and operate on its own, and quickly open the group with red envelopes. Sometimes there will be chaotic operations, and some irrelevant pages will be opened automatically. This can’t help but make people wonder: Will the user’s personal information be stolen by the red envelope artifact?
Case college students were sentenced for developing red envelope artifacts for profit.
The red envelope artifact is so "divine" that it will certainly not be free. The reporter’s investigation found that the automatic red envelope grabbing function of such artifacts is generally free of charge, but the more advanced "mine-sweeping and mine-burying" function requires payment to open members. Take the "Lei Hang grabs the red envelope artifact" as an example. It costs 56.88 yuan for a trial period and 178 yuan for a lifetime member. Huge profits have attracted many people to profit from them.
According to Modern Express, Zheng, a college student, loves computers. He tried to write a program when he was in junior high school. After he was admitted to the computer department of a university, he found the "business opportunity" of the red envelope artifact. So I developed a plug-in software for grabbing red envelopes, and called several other people to form a crime gang. In just eight months, I made illegal profits of more than 10.77 million yuan, and finally I was arrested and sentenced last year.
In addition to software developers, users can also make huge profits illegally. According to Anhui Business Daily, in August 2017, the police in Lai ‘an County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province cracked a WeChat red envelope gambling case involving 170 million yuan. The dealer specially bought the red envelope artifact to ensure that he grabbed the red envelope in the first time. In just three months, the banker pumped more than 4 million yuan.
Combating the use of WeChat group gambling is "opening a casino"
Like the above case, the function of the red envelope artifact is "divine" again, and no matter how well the gambling behavior of WeChat is hidden, it can’t escape the fate of being exposed and attacked. On December 25, 2018, the Supreme People’s Court released five guiding cases of severely punishing cyber crimes according to law, two of which involved using WeChat group to set up gambling, and made it clear that using WeChat group to set up gambling was an act of "opening a casino".
In addition, the WeChat security team has been carrying out special strikes and governance against gambling violations. Tencent told reporters that the WeChat platform will score and judge the gambling credit for confirming the security attributes of gambling malicious accounts based on user complaints, and distinguish and dispose of gambling organizers and gamblers in gradient according to specific abnormal behaviors and violations. For gambling organizers, once found, the account gradient will be strictly banned; For those involved in gambling, according to the seriousness of gambling, we will adopt the treatment including but not limited to warning, blocking function and blocking account number.
Wechat Security Center reminds you not to use plug-in software for grabbing red envelopes or participate in any form of online gambling. If anyone in the WeChat group is found to be using WeChat plug-in software or gambling, they can complain to WeChat, and the WeChat team will verify the complaint and deal with it in time.
Xie Huijia, director of the Internet Law Research Center of South China University of Technology, said that on the one hand, plug-in monitoring technology should be vigorously developed and applied to establish a convenient notification deletion program for plug-in software; On the other hand, we should improve the relevant legislation, increase the criminal liability clauses for cracking the copyright technology protection measures, and build a strict criminal liability system for cracking down on plug-ins.