Recently, a case of using illegal technological means to invade hospital registration systems and resell appointment slots has been exposed, uncovering the truth behind the black industry chain ranging from “hacking for appointments” to “reselling appointments under the guise of accompanying patients.”
According to reports by The Paper on April 22nd, there exists a criminal gang in Shanghai that seizes and resells hospital appointment slots using illegal technology.
In March of this year, a Grade A hospital in Minhang District was reported. The hospital’s online registration platform showed that a large number of expert appointment slots were fully booked, yet the actual attendance rate was not high, with many slots left unclaimed. At the same time, some patients complained that even if they were prompt in trying to secure a slot, the expert appointments were quickly taken, making the registration process far more challenging than usual.
A group of accounts were highly active, frequently changing the personal information of the patients. According to statistics, these accounts collectively made over 3000 appointments but the actual attendance was only around 950 times, with cancellations and expirations accounting for nearly 70%, indicating a clear deviation from the normal pattern of patient visits.
Investigations revealed a black industry chain that combines “online order acceptance, technological appointment grabbing, and reselling of appointment slots.”
The suspect, Li, used script software to continuously refresh the hospital’s registration system and monitored the appointment slots in real-time through cameras, enabling quick grabbing of slots at any time.
Behind Li, there was an intermediary sales network operating under the guise of “accompanying services.” Four so-called “companions” posted advertisements through online channels offering to “handle hospital appointments” for prices ranging from 130 yuan to 500 yuan per appointment, purchasing the grabbed slots from Li and reselling them to patients in urgent need of medical care, earning illegal profits totaling over 1 million yuan through incremental price markups.
After receiving orders from the “companions,” Li would either grab slots directly for designated patients or use a method of relinquishing slots and grabbing them again, altering patient information to “cleanse” and resell the slots, accumulating illegal profits exceeding 2.4 million yuan.
The suspects used illegal technological means to seize and resell hospital appointment slots and even commissioned the development of a “appointment registration software.”
In addition to Li, other suspects such as Zheng and Lan also profited in a similar manner. Among them, Zheng invaded hospital registration systems and swiftly seized expert appointment slots through software scripts, virtual machines, and other technological means.
For an ordinary patient, from logging into the system to successfully making payment, the entire process would take at least 1 minute, whereas Zheng, through automated scripts, only needed 1 second to grab an appointment slot. To further enhance “efficiency,” Zheng specifically commissioned the development of an “appointment registration software” where patients could directly input their information and have Zheng grab a slot as needed. Through this alone, Zheng accumulated profits reaching over 3.1 million yuan.
Recently, 10 suspects have been arrested, and 5 computers and 46 mobile phones have been confiscated.