CCTV exposes cheating, fraud by companies

To mark the International Consumer Rights Day on March 15, China Central Television broadcast a program that exposed business misconduct by several companies.

The live show on Sunday revealed a number of consumer rights violations by companies, including auto dealers, mobile operators and gasoline producers.

Now let's take a look at the major illegal business exposed on the program.

1. Prank calls

Mobile operators China Mobile and China Tietong are the hidden forces behind prank calls, the program claimed.

The two operators allow unidentified call centers, whose call numbers are "10086", the service hotline of China Mobile, and "110", the emergency call number in Chinese mainland, to get through.

2. Auto dealers overcharge for repairs

A number of auto dealerships in China overcharge and make profits by exaggerating the problems when vehicles come in for repair, claimed the show.

It alleged that car dealerships, operating under Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co, Shanghai Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou, had been reportedly charging consumers thousands of yuan for a simple problem that could be solved by simply plugging in the induction coil inside the ignition system.

3. Hazardous chemicals in gasoline

Several chemical firms are reported to make illegal profits by producing cheap compromised gasoline. The gas they blended can be 2,000 yuan cheaper than the qualified refined gasoline per ton, according to the report by China Central television.

The gasoline contains many hazardous chemicals, such as methanol and methyl, which are banned by the regulators. The reason why the blended gasoline can pass the test of national's standards is that the test only check whether the gasoline contained the certain substances, but not check which contents are included.

The alleged companies include two chemical corporations that produced this gas and one training school in East China's Shandong province that teaches how to produce this blended gas.

4. Faulty gearbox

Owners of Evoque cars in China encountered malfunctions such as sudden stop and faulty reverse gear, which re-happened after 4S stores changed the defective gearboxes with new ones for free, according to CCTV's report.

The report claimed that Land Rover (China) denied the problems in gearbox and passed the buck to Chinese consumers, saying "they drove too fast".

5. Cheating seniors

CCTV reported that the seniors are tricked into spending money on lots of dubious healthcare products, including medicines, physical treatment machines and others kinds of devices.

Most of these products do not have registered numbers and certificates. Through various cheating schemes, the sales person tries to empty the seniors' pockets.

A senior woman surnamed Wang spent more than 400,000 yuan on such products, the report said.

6. Users' identity

In order to accomplish the sales target, several staff in a branch company of China Unicom in Changde city, Central China's Hunan province, stole users' ID information to activate SIM cards under the users' names illegally, the show alleged.

After accomplishing the sales target, these cards are sold to card dealers, who may use these numbers for illegal uses.

7. Fake identity card

Several branch companies of Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China allegedly provide permits to fake ID cards.

CCTV revealed that despite regulations requiring all bank accounts to be registered under real name, several branches of the banks mentioned above still open bank accounts for clients with fake ID cards.