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Consumer groups decry fraudulent TV direct ads

(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-20 11:50

Song Yuyou, a fish farmer in northeastern China's Jilin province, spends almost every night attending the fish ponds. It is a lonely and often monotonous job.

One day at home, Song saw a television commercial for a well-known domestic-made mobile phone with a TV function.

Song immediately called the sales hotline. He was thrilled when a soft-spoken young woman's voice informed him that, because he was among the first 50 callers that day, he was entitled to a special offer of 398 yuan ($58.26).

The normal price, he was told, was more than 3,000 yuan.

A week later, Song received a package with an unwelcome surprise inside. The package contained nothing except a few women's beauty products.

When Song called the hotline again, he was told that the delivery had been a mistake. He was promised a handset, but months passed and none was delivered despite repeated calls. Eventually, the hotline was disconnected.

Rapid growth

According to the Jilin Consumers Association, complaints from rural residents about TV direct sales surged from 20 percent to 50 percent in the nine months following July 2008.

As the central government looks to the huge rural market of consumers to help build the national economy, swindlers have discovered great opportunities there, too.

Although TV direct sales have been around for decades, having no direct contact with the products or the dealer can expose the customer to a greater risk of deception, according to consumer watchdog organizations.

A survey in 2006 by the China Consumers Association (CCA) of 30 major TV channels across the country found fraudulent direct sales promotions accounted for 61 percent of illegal TV ads.

Deceptive TV ads exaggerate product performance and effects. They emphasize cheap prices and sometimes recruit celebrities to endorse brands. Misleading content and repeated airing combine to make the ads successful, industry watchers said.

Fraudulent advertisers often provide fake company names and provide a minimum of information about the company address and other contact details.

The operations are scattered. The ad might be aired in Beijing, the hotline registered in another city, products made in a remote province and items mailed from a different place.

When the ad stops airing, the fraudsters move and change the business name.

TV direct sales proliferated in China in the late 1990s, mainly promoting health care products such as appliances for enhancing height or cures for near-sightedness.

Complaints about such sales snowballed and constituted a major target of CCA condemnation every year on March 15, the International Day for Protecting Consumers' Rights.

In August 2006, the agency banned the broadcast of five types of ads, including products for reducing weight or enlarging breasts, as well as certain others advertising medicines and medical equipment.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industries)

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