A daily taxi, a meter should have been transparent. However, once the meter is illegally modified, passengers can easily be overcharged. In recent days, tianjin's first trial judgement in the case of the provision of tools for the illegal control of computer information systems resulted from a passenger complaint in which a multi-sectoral coalition uncovered the gruesomeness behind the conversion of the meter。
In the summer of 2024, the passenger liu, as usual, took a taxi home. On average, the journey home was about $20, but after this arrival, the meter showed a charge of $40, which almost doubled. There was no change in the route of the car, nor was the waiting period for parking long, and liu felt that the price was unreasonable, and then made a complaint by calling 12,345。
The taxi meter on the market generally consists of two important components: a sensor installed on the front axle of the vehicle, which can sense the vehicle's path and convert it into an electronic pulse signal; and a receiving device inside the vehicle, which calculates and shows the price of the mileage and its counterpart by receiving the pulse signal of the sensor. The fraudulent device, which was detected by law enforcement officers, was designed to send additional pulse signals by controlling the sensor and to allow the meter to increase its mileage。
Under article 285, paragraph 3, of the criminal law of the people's republic of china, the provision and installation of electronic pulse devices to control taxi metering in private for others is an offence under aggravating circumstances and constitutes the provision of tools for the illegal control of computer information systems. This was followed by a joint investigation of the tianjin police by the transport management and market supervision department of tianjin city。
In the course of the investigation, the police found that the shop was small, remote and did not display any sign。
During this period, the police found that taxis were frequently brought to the garage, that the case handlers recorded all the stopover taxi plates and compared the actual journeys, distances, waiting hours and the data on their fees with the smart surveillance system of tianjin。
A small garage, which has hundreds of customers. At the end of march 2025, the tianjin police carried out a web-enabled operation against drivers found during the investigation to have installed fraudulent equipment。
In the course of previous investigations and networking operations, the tianjin police had already targeted the owner of the garage, chen yi. On 1 april 2025, the police went to his residence for arrest。
The destruction of the evidence was only the beginning of chen's refusal to cooperate. In the course of the proceedings, chen and the public prosecutor “negotiated” and, in the face of numerous statements made to him, determined that they only operated a price-fixing business, unrelated to the large number of “small aircraft” sold。
The police visited specialized institutions such as the chinese automobile institute and confirmed with experts that the accessories they had found at the shop were essential materials for the production of “small aircraft”. The experts explained that the market mainstream counters actually designed their own “falseproof” codes, did not receive electrical pulse signals at random, and only pulse signals with the correct “communication code” could be recorded by the meter. On the other hand, the central function of a particular chip held by chen, as certified by a professional body, is to decrypt the formal counter and to tamper with the counter data。
At the same time, the investigators found that chen had only accepted cash transactions from acquaintances in order to avoid leaving evidence when selling the fraudulent equipment. On an individual basis, he only allowed the buyer to transfer the money in the form of multiple micro-letters, which he thought would escape legal liability for illicit enrichment。
From production to sale, chen's criminal facts are clear and complete, and the chain of evidence is closed. However, in the face of the prosecution's allegations, he pleaded not guilty in court and was unable to defend himself。
The case is more hidden from the source, and the fraud device is less easily discovered by the passengers, who are suspected of violating the law by means of self-retrofitting the metering device, wearing a fraud device, tampering with the billing data, and seriously violating the legitimate rights of the population and disrupting the order of the passenger market. So how should the passengers protect their rights and interests, and how should the transparent and healthy development of the taxi industry be monitored and maintained
At tianjin airport, journalists are conducting daily law enforcement checks of taxis operating with traffic law enforcement officers in tianjin city. The operational qualifications of vehicles and the qualifications of drivers, including the standard use of priced equipment, are the focus of regular inspections。
The rental car industry is an important service window industry in a city. Traffic enforcement in tianjin has joined forces with market regulation, public security and other departments. Re-empowerment efforts have dealt with irregularities such as self-retrofitting counters and over-charging, creating a joint governance path from source-control to precision, which provides strong guarantees for regulating the taxi market order and safeguarding the legal rights and interests of a large number of passengers。
