According to a report by China National Radio's "News Horizons" on May 10 from Beijing, presales, spend-and-save discounts, flash sales... today, major e-commerce platforms roll out an endless stream of promotions and marketing gimmicks. To maximize their "bargain hunting," many consumers race to switch devices and test their tapping speed, each deploying their own tricks. However, some lawbreakers have turned their crooked schemes toward e-commerce platforms' "flash sale" and "purchase limit" activities, using plug-in software to snap up promotional goods through improper means and then resell them for profit. Recently, Ningbo police announced a case involving hackers who illegally "flash-purchased" high-end phones and premium liquor. What looks like a "business opportunity" is actually a prison sentence—how does illegal "bargain hunting" disrupt the online trading order?

　　In November 2023, the Cybersecurity Division of the Jiangbei Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau received a report from an e-commerce platform seeking help, saying that someone was suspected of using hacking methods to snap up large quantities of Moutai liquor, Huawei phones, and other popular "flash sale" and "purchase-limited" goods in the platform's mall livestream rooms, affecting the platform's normal operating ecosystem. Police immediately set up a special task force to investigate.

　　Chen Haolei, a police officer with the Cybersecurity Division of the Jiangbei Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau, explained: "Through investigation, the criminal suspects cracked the platform's security algorithms, wrote automated purchase programs, and used purchased accounts to snap up the platform's flash-sale goods, then resold the goods at marked-up prices to make a profit."

　　Shen Zhenzhen, deputy director of the ** Procuratorate Department of the Jiangbei District People's Procuratorate in Ningbo, said that the criminal conduct of suspects Zheng and Sheng, who used illegal means to "flash-purchase" high-end phones and premium liquor, lasted nearly a year.

　　Shen Zhenzhen said: "Sheng created the order-grabbing software. He first used the software in livestream rooms to specifically snap up Huawei phones and Moutai liquor, because these two kinds of goods are relatively 'hard currency' and easy to resell on the market for profit. Zheng is Sheng's brother-in-law. Afterward, the two separately used the developed order-grabbing software to snap up Huawei phones and Moutai liquor in livestream rooms."

　　According to the recollections of the case-handling police, after identifying the two suspects, the task force went to Sichuan in December 2023 to organize an arrest, and at the scene seized two Huawei Mate 60 series phones that had not yet been resold and a batch of small-specification Moutai liquor and other items, and at the scene cleared 53 high-end Huawei phones that had not yet arrived.

　　Chen Haolei said: "According to statistics, the suspects used this technical means to snap up goods involving nearly 10 million yuan, including 800 transactions with a single payment of more than 5,000 yuan. So far, it has been verified that the suspects resold at least more than 650 high-end Huawei phones and more than 500 bottles of Moutai liquor of various specifications, with total profits of at least more than 1 million yuan."

Some of the Moutai liquor seized at the scene (photo provided by Ningbo police)

　　In January this year, Zheng and Sheng were approved for arrest by the Jiangbei District People's Procuratorate on suspicion of the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. According to Article 285 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data or illegally controlling computer information systems refers to violating state regulations by intruding into computer information systems other than those in the fields of state affairs, national defense construction, and cutting-edge science and technology, or using other technical means to obtain data stored, processed, or transmitted in such computer information systems, or implementing illegal control over such computer information systems. If the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.

　　Regarding the specific facts of the illegal and criminal conduct in this case, Shen Zhenzhen explained: "The so-called 'obtaining' is equivalent to the suspect forging a 'signature' and then sending a request to the platform merchant, meaning 'I want to buy this product.' In fact, it is a fake 'signature,' and when the merchant receives this information, it returns the relevant data to him. This process actually involves obtaining some of the platform's data; the platform will believe that this is a real, objectively existing user. Every online platform has security barriers, and the suspect broke through this barrier by writing his own program, which is why the platform server mistakenly believed that the 'signature' was real."

　　The case-handling police said that participating online in "bargain hunting" was originally a promotional format benefiting platforms, merchants, and consumers alike, but using plug-in software to achieve "flash purchases" actually violates the market principles of fair trade and good faith.

　　Chen Haolei said: "On the surface, the suspects seem to have merely written an automated 'flash purchase' program to 'hunt bargains,' but in essence they bypassed some of the App's own restrictions by cracking algorithms—for example, they could already place orders before ordinary users had even started buying—thus creating a certain unfairness. Their behavior disrupted the normal online order and also had a certain impact on the platform's operating ecosystem. Some merchants are then unwilling to place goods on this platform, and some consumers who genuinely want to buy find it difficult to snap up the products they want."

　　Shen Zhenzhen specifically explained that the suspects' criminal methods, on the surface, only harmed the rights and interests of consumers to participate equally in "bargain hunting," and seemed not to cause additional economic losses to merchants, for whom "selling to anyone is still a profit." However, there is no gray zone in maintaining the order and security of online transactions.

　　Shen Zhenzhen said: "In law, we distinguish between the means act and the purpose act. Many people think, 'My purpose act seems not to have affected the merchant; selling to me or to someone else is the same, I just bought more.' But in reality, the means act may violate the law, and in this case it happens that the suspects' means act violated criminal law."

　　At present, the case is under further handling. Police remind that the red line of the law must not be crossed and the bottom line of safety must not be touched. When using information network technology, everyone should raise their awareness of cybersecurity and the law, develop and use various software programs in accordance with the law, and jointly maintain the security of online transactions. Only when e-commerce develops in a healthy and orderly manner can consumers happily "hunt bargains" and shop with confidence.

　　Tang Yujie, head of the Cybersecurity Protection Division of the Jiangbei Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau, said: "From the perspective of online store operators, if during special-price promotions they find that snapped-up goods have many repeated delivery addresses, they need to be more vigilant. They can make the promotional links released in different batches somewhat different to reduce the risk of being locked in advance by illegal programs, and if abnormalities are found, please promptly submit them to the e-commerce platform for further risk control. From the perspective of the general internet users, they should be aware of the criminal and civil legal risks brought by using illegal programs to snap up goods. Such conduct may constitute the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data, and civilly they also face legal risks such as return and compensation. The cyber police remind the general internet users never to land themselves in the situation of violating the law and committing crimes just because 'my tapping speed is not fast enough, so I'll make up for it with tools.'"