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our reporter chen jingjing reports from beijing

the misleading insurance "trap insurance" practices that have been banned many times by regulators using gimmicks such as "0 yuan for the first month", "1 yuan for the first month" and "free protection" are making a comeback.

recently, many consumers reported that they clicked on the insurance product promotion page of a platform called "xinghuobao" according to the sms prompts they received. the page sold an insurance product called "6 million medical insurance" with slogans such as "6 million yuan for major and minor illnesses" and "60 cents/month" on the front page. after entering personal information, the insurance fee calculation on the lower left showed that the insurance fee was only 0.02 yuan/day, equivalent to 0.6 yuan/month.

a reporter from china business news noticed that on the public complaint platform, there were more than 800 complaint posts involving the keyword "xinghuobao", mainly about "sms and phone harassment", "60 cents to induce insurance", "insurance fraud", "false advertising", etc.

according to the customer notice disclosed by "xinghuobao", the operating entity of "xinghuobao" is anxingtianxia insurance brokerage (shanghai) co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "anxingtianxia brokerage"), and the number of cooperating insurance companies has reached 30.

the above-mentioned problem has attracted the attention of law enforcement departments in some regions. public information shows that the hehuang new district public security bureau of haidong city, qinghai province and the chanhe branch of the luoyang public security bureau of henan province have both issued official wechat accounts naming "xinghuobao" for deducting consumers' insurance premiums and asking the public security to help it recover the money.

first month "discount" routine

previously, major platforms frequently marketed short-term health insurance products with “0.1 yuan for the first month” or “1 yuan for the first month”. after consumers received the products, their premiums were deducted from the next month, which caused a large number of complaints. although this marketing model has been stopped by regulatory authorities many times, related “variants” still exist.

some consumers told reporters that there are still insurance products marketed as "60 cents for the first month" on the market, but unlike the previous high-profile promotions on public social platforms, these products are now covertly distributed to individual individuals through text messages, phone calls, and targeted push notifications.

ms. wang (pseudonym), who bought the "xinghuobao" insurance product, told reporters that she received a text message from "xinghuobao" saying that it only cost a few cents a month, and she thought it was cheap so she filled in the relevant information. one month later, she checked the bill and found that she had been deducted. "xinghuobao" has increased the premium from the original 0.6 yuan to 100 yuan per month since august 2024, and she has never received a notification call from "xinghuobao" during this period.

in early september, after clicking on the sms insurance link provided by the consumer, the reporter saw a pop-up message saying "6 million medical insurance" and "this product is underwritten by taikang online property insurance co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'taikang online')". after clicking to confirm, the next page showed that the product name was "taikang e-family ankang million medical insurance", and the slogans "6 million for major and minor illnesses" and "60 cents/month, small investment, big insurance" occupied half of the mobile phone screen, and there was also a smart voice playing simultaneously: "everyone should have an insurance policy. in case of an accident or illness, there is no need to sell the car or house and ask for money from others."

the public promotional materials of "xinghuobao" show that the premium rate of taikang online's "ejia ankang million medical insurance" product is 0.6 yuan per month regardless of age if there is social security; if there is no social security, it is 2 yuan per month.

after the reporter clicked "join protection", the system automatically popped up a window with information including "insurance instructions", "disclaimer", "health notice", "customer notice", etc. after clicking "i have read and agree to all content", there is no need to open and read the aforementioned series of documents one by one, you can directly jump to the payment interface, and the payment price is 0.6 yuan.

"0.6 yuan was only deducted in the first month. the price was not the same in subsequent months. after i applied for cancellation of the insurance, i still received phone calls and text messages harassing me to buy insurance." ms. wang told reporters.

the reporter checked the public complaint platform and found that many consumers had similar experiences to ms. wang. many other consumers posted complaints publicly, saying: "'xinghuobao' induced users to receive insurance for free, leaked user phone number information, and received harassment calls from different regions every day."

after browsing the product information and entering the mobile phone number on spark insurance, the reporter did not pay the premium. he then received multiple text messages reminding him to purchase insurance.

in this regard, the reporter called the customer service of "xinghuobao" to understand the relevant situation. the customer service staff told the reporter: "after you enter the information, our salesperson will see it on the platform and think that you are willing to purchase insurance, and will contact you later."

it is worth mentioning that when the reporter browsed the product promotion page and clicked back, "xinghuobao" also recommended an "anxiang e-life million medical insurance", the price of which was displayed as 0.6 yuan/month, and the information that the original price was 30 yuan/month was marked.

comparing with the product rate table disclosed by "xinghuobao", taking 26-30 years old as an example, the rate for social security is 30 yuan per month, but the actual payment is only 0.6 yuan in the first month. the actual payment of consumers does not match the product rate of the insurance company.

however, on september 18, the reporter opened the insurance link sent by "xinghuobao" a few days ago and found that after entering the relevant information, the interface prompted the reporter that he could not be insured because he did not meet the insurance conditions. at the same time, the latest interface displayed the million-dollar medical insurance, which had changed from "0.6 yuan/month, the original price was 30 yuan/month" to "monthly premium of 30 yuan".

in response to this, the property and casualty insurance company to which the aforementioned "anxiang e-life million medical insurance" belongs told reporters that it has asked "xinghuobao" to fully inform the sales activities of our company's products. at present, the platform has responded that the "instant discount on payment" for our company's products has been completely stopped.

in addition, some consumers said on a public complaint platform: "the elderly were induced to purchase insurance and automatic renewal was activated using the gimmick of low-priced insurance. my elderly family member was deducted 220 yuan for no apparent reason." many consumers also posted that they were automatically deducted without their knowledge and now want to recover the fees.

violating consumers’ right to know?

regarding the marketing of "xinghuobao" with "60 cents for the first month's premium", but the subsequent automatic deductions and the surge in premiums, many lawyers said in interviews with reporters that these practices violated consumers' most basic right to know.

guo yutao, chief lawyer at beijing gefeng law firm, told reporters: "according to the relevant provisions of the consumer protection law of the people's republic of china (hereinafter referred to as the consumer protection law), consumers have the right to know, including knowing the price. in the above case, insurance consumers should not only have the right to know the price of the first month, but also the right to know the subsequent prices. such situations are misleading publicity and infringe on consumers' right to know."

in fact, according to the "notice on regulating the traceable management of internet insurance sales behaviors" issued by the regulator, internet insurance sales pages should fully explain insurance products, disclose information accurately and completely, and protect consumers' right to know; they should fully respect consumers' wishes, and the insured should enter the insurance process after independently confirming that they have read it, to protect consumers' right to choose independently; a separate page should be set up to display important terms such as exemption of insurer liability to the insured.

the "xinghuobao" platform sells a series of important information such as "insurance instructions", "special agreements", "health notices", "customer notices", etc. for many million-dollar medical insurance products. consumers only need to click "i have read and agreed to all content" to pay the premium.

at the same time, the "self-insurance and authorized withholding service agreement" for the product is also included in the above "i have read and agreed to all contents". this agreement shows that investors authorize anxing tianxia brokerage to perform withholding services for premium payments for insurance products purchased, and collect corresponding funds from their bound bank accounts and third-party payment platform accounts, including monthly premiums to be paid and premiums paid when self-insurance is renewed.

if the customer does not open this document to read it, he or she may have reached an agreement for automatic deductions without knowing it.

zhou qingyuan, a partner at guangdong lianyue law firm, told reporters that improper publicity using low prices as "bait" to attract customers to the insurance products seriously undermines consumers' right to know. the first-month discount enjoyed by consumers is essentially a disguised rebate by insurance institutions.

"in accordance with the relevant provisions of article 10, paragraph 2 of the consumer protection law and article 18 of the online transaction supervision and administration measures, if operators provide services through automatic extension, automatic renewal, etc., they must remind consumers in a prominent manner before consumers accept the services and five days before the date of automatic extension, automatic renewal, etc., and consumers can make their own choices. during the service period, consumers must be provided with prominent and simple options to cancel or change at any time, and no unreasonable fees may be charged. the practice of automatic deductions violates the above regulations." zhou qingyuan told reporters.

in addition, according to the content posted by consumers on the public complaint platform, in addition to marketing products with the "60 cents for the first month" offer, "xinghuobao" also uses free insurance to further guide consumers to upgrade their insurance products.

according to industry insiders, the core purpose of the "first month ×× yuan" policy, which is given as free insurance or to guide consumers to upgrade, is not to sell the policy, but to use it as a "hook" to facilitate secondary conversion and guide consumers to buy other insurance products. most of them are converted into slightly more expensive million-yuan medical insurance. some older consumers are converted into cancer prevention medical insurance, while young people are converted into standard million-yuan medical insurance, one-year critical illness insurance, accident insurance, etc.

strict supervision still "emerges"

zhou qingyuan told reporters that in recent years, regulatory authorities have issued many documents to regulate internet insurance sales, and suspected violations in the industry have been restrained. however, the reappearance of this "60 cents in the first month" model, which was once stopped by regulators and has been dormant for many years, is worrying.

the reporter found that in december 2020, november 2021 and july 2022, regulators had publicly notified and punished a number of insurance companies and insurance brokerage agencies for deceiving policyholders with policies such as "0 yuan for the first month" and "1 yuan for the first month".

in august 2023, the regulatory authorities stopped insurance companies from giving away free insurance or guiding consumers to upgrade products with “×× yuan for the first month”, and required relevant insurance companies to conduct self-inspection and rectification and hold internal accountability, and stated that further regulatory measures would be taken if self-inspection and rectification were not in place.

on november 6, 2023, the regulatory authorities issued a "notice on further improving short-term health insurance business" to all insurance companies, requiring that "zero" rates are strictly prohibited, and that important insurance liabilities of short-term health insurance products must not be arbitrarily changed through approval orders, annotations, etc.

on the same day, the regulatory authorities issued a "notice on risks of short-term health insurance products" which clarified five aspects, including requiring insurance companies to clearly inform and remind consumers of important contents such as the product's deductible, liability for deductibles, compensation ratio, cancellation agreement, and premium payment method when selling short-term health insurance products. improper publicity should not use a series of words such as "premium as low as (minimum) × yuan", "monthly starting from × yuan", "guarantee up to (maximum) × million yuan", "low as (minimum)", "starting from", "up to (maximum)" and so on.

in july this year, the "insurance industry consumer rights protection self-discipline convention" issued by the china insurance association also pointed out that insurance institutions should not engage in fraudulent, conceal or misleading publicity to consumers, exaggerate product returns, conceal product risks, or force bundling or tie-in sales of products or services.

some experts have publicly analyzed that the reasons why insurance intermediaries adopt such a sales method may include: the insurance market is highly competitive, and some entities will inevitably adopt illegal methods to engage in unfair competition; and the internal compliance management of insurance intermediaries is not in place.

crisis public relations expert and brand positioning expert zhan junhao told reporters that once such marketing tactics cause consumer dissatisfaction, it will have a great negative impact on the company's reputation. from the perspective of brand public relations crisis, companies should actively respond to consumer demands, explain the cost structure, and strengthen internal management to avoid similar problems from happening again, so as to maintain the company's good image and reputation.

regarding issues such as automatic deductions and the "60 cents for the first month" cooperation model, the reporter wrote to anxing tianxia brokerage and called the relevant person in charge of taikang online's brand. as of press time, no official reply has been received.