The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Operational decision · 2020
Tencent sued 老干妈 for unpaid ads — then found it had been swindled by a fake brand
Tencent froze 老干妈's assets for unpaid ad fees, then police revealed three fraudsters had posed as the brand to take ¥4.31M in game codes.
Tencent · 2020-06
What happened
In April 2020 Tencent asked a Shenzhen court to freeze over ¥16 million of 老干妈's assets, claiming the chilli-sauce maker owed it advertising fees for a QQ飞车 collaboration contract.
The court approved the freeze on 29 June 2020. A day later 老干妈 said it had never signed any cooperation agreement with Tencent and had never worked with it, and reported the matter to police.
On 1 July 2020 Guiyang police said three people had forged 老干妈's seal and impersonated its marketing department to sign the contract, taking QQ飞车 game gift codes worth about ¥4.31 million to resell online.
Tencent became the internet's laughing stock — the episode was dubbed 逗鹅冤 (the goose's grievance). Tencent's own official Weibo admitted '一言难尽', and a company famous for winning its legal fights had been swindled by a forged seal.
Why it happened
- Tencent's marketing team signed a ¥16-million ad deal with a counterparty it never verified, so the identity check failed before any money moved.
- It went to court and forced a public asset freeze on an innocent brand, which turned the eventual reversal into a nationwide humiliation.
- A company that projects legal strength could not see through a forged seal, because the trusted national brand name was never checked.
The lesson
Due diligence is the whole deal. Tencent advertised for a 老干妈 that never existed, sued the real one, and learned what a forged seal plus a trusted name can do.
Aftermath
In December 2021 a Guiyang court sentenced the three fraudsters to 12, 7 and 6 years for the forgery and ordered them to repay Tencent about ¥4.31 million; the appeal was dismissed in April 2022. Tencent and 老干妈 later issued a joint statement that the misunderstanding had been cleared up, but the 逗鹅冤 meme permanently attached a story of a careless giant to the name of Tencent's marketing arm.
Sources
- 澎湃新闻: 逗鹅冤事件始末与一审二审判决 (the timeline, the ¥4.31M fraud, the verdicts)
- 网易/北京泽达律师事务所: 假冒老干妈诈骗腾讯案法律分析 (the forgery, the ¥16M freeze, criminal liability)
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