1. Case Overview
- Scale of Investigation: National public security organs cracked 95 gas station cheating cases, investigated and dealt with more than 9,000 cheating devices, arrested 298 criminal suspects, and found that the amount of tax evasion was as high as more than 790 million yuan.
- Typical case: A gas station in Guigang, Guangxi installed a hidden remote control program and set parameters in the background. For every 50-liter box of gasoline, it could steal 1.5 liters of oil, and regularly deleted the background data to evade inspection.
2. Cheating methods and characteristics
- Technical upgrade:
- Tampering with metering chips: Replace or modify the gas station chip to make the displayed refueling amount greater than the actual output.
- Remote control system: Develop two gas station management systems, display normal data in the front end, and control the oil theft parameters (such as the proportion of oil theft and the amount of tax evasion) through hidden programs in the background.
- Physical cheating: tampering with the fuel gun switch, so that the fuel gun is idling and charging but not actually discharging fuel.
- Concealment: After cheating, the background data is deleted immediately, making it difficult for law enforcement officers to obtain evidence; some gas stations even set up a "one-click recovery" function to quickly clear evidence.
3. Difficulties in law enforcement and consumer response
- Regulatory challenges: Cheating technology is becoming increasingly high-tech, and ordinary law enforcement officers lack professional equipment to detect tampering procedures.
- Consumer identification suggestions:
- Check whether the fuel dispenser is affixed with the mandatory inspection mark and the validity period;
- Check whether the fuel dispenser seal is intact;
- If you find any abnormalities, you can call 12345 to complain.
4. Policy response
The State Administration for Market Regulation and other four departments jointly issued the "Special Action Plan for Comprehensive Governance of Gas Station Cheating", which focuses on:
- Strengthen daily supervision and technical screening, and strictly investigate behaviors such as tampering with chips and falsifying background data;
- Promote real-time networking of gas station data to reduce the space for human manipulation;
- Increase the cost of violations and implement joint punishment on companies and personnel involved.
---
Related case supplement: Consumers in Zhangzhou, Fujian, Henan and other places reported that the fuel tank capacity was obviously inconsistent with the amount of fuel, and the amount of fuel added to some vehicles even exceeded the nominal capacity of the fuel tank.