Chapter 737: Counterfeit Card

After negotiating with Chu Min, Chen Yang finally agreed to let Chu Ning stay temporarily in Xingcheng.

According to Chu Min's opinion, as long as Chen Yang can resist temptation, Chu Ning will eventually find it boring and return to Yangcheng.

Regarding his wife's non-stick pan behavior, Chen Yang was very dissatisfied. But considering she was pregnant, he could only suppress his anger.

Fortunately, Aunt Yun also came from Modu. The household matters didn't require Chen Yang to worry.

Thus, Chen Yang shuttled between several companies during the day and returned home to rest at night. He managed to spend a few days peacefully.

However, while the home was temporarily trouble-free, work kept encountering problems.

First, the Public Pass offline recharge cards were not as popular with consumers as expected.

Moreover, less than three days after the recharge cards were issued, a large number of counterfeit cards appeared on the market. Their counterfeiting technology was so advanced that even the elites of the Public Pass Payment Co., Ltd.'s technical department could not tell them apart.

Left with no choice, Chen Yang could only temporarily halt the promotion of offline recharge cards.

While deciding to report to the police, Chen Yang summoned Cheng Xiao Xiao and Kong Qiming to his office for a small meeting to jointly analyze the reasons for the promotion's failure.

"Director Chen, our technology is provided by the four major banks. It was copied so quickly—could it be their people meddling behind the scenes?"

Chen Yang solemnly told Cheng Xiao Xiao: "General Manager Cheng, you are the company's overall responsible person. Without evidence, you must not speak recklessly. Otherwise, your work in the board will be difficult to carry out."

Cheng Xiao Xiao snorted coldly and said: "When we first proposed this project, they were not very enthusiastic, saying the profit was low and the risk high. If we hadn't persuaded Director Huo, this project would likely have been rejected in the board."

Chen Yang had also attended the board meeting at that time, so he clearly knew the attitude of the four major banks' representatives. But he did not believe they would leak their own confidential technology for a project that had not yet undergone market testing.

"General Manager Cheng, no matter what you think, we must first find evidence. If even our own shareholders don't trust us, the company may not last long before it has to dissolve."

Cheng Xiao Xiao nodded and said: "I have already asked the chief of Xingcheng Public Security Bureau to personally investigate this case. With the victims' statements, we should be able to find the criminal suspect soon."

Chen Yang had actually also sought help from Chen Bing in private, so he wasn't worried about the case not being solved. He was more concerned about the problem with the recharge card technology itself.

"General Manager Cheng, let the police handle the counterfeit card issue first. The urgent priority is to fix our own technical shortcomings. If we don't improve anti-theft technology, even if the police solve the case, new counterfeit cards will still appear later."

Cheng Xiao Xiao thought Chen Yang made sense, so she said: "Director Chen, should we go poach some technical talent from the four major banks? That would solve our current problem and also avoid being strangled by them later."

Chen Yang immediately rejected her suggestion: "No, there is no shortage of security technology talent in the market; we don't need to offend all the shareholders over a minor technical issue."

Upon hearing that, Cheng Xiao Xiao laughed and said: "Poaching people from outside would cost much more; aren't you worried about the money?"

Chen Yang calmly replied: "What's there to worry about? It's not just my money being spent. I suggest you recruit talent abroad. That would avoid technical conflicts with the four major banks and also strengthen our technical department."

"Alright, I'll contact a headhunting firm right away." Seeing that Chen Yang didn't care about money, Cheng Xiao Xiao immediately felt motivated.

Chen Yang worried she might hold back in negotiations, so he earnestly instructed: "As long as the person has solid technical skills, spending a bit more is fine. If the board has objections, I'll smooth things over."

Cheng Xiao Xiao nodded, then stood up and left the office.

After she left, Chen Yang turned his attention to Kong Qiming: "Manager Kong, I think our offline promotion service should be appropriately optimized. Do you have any good suggestions?"

Kong Qiming actually already had some ideas; he immediately said: "Boss, according to what I've learned, those counterfeit cards were not bought at our physical stores. To prevent this problem from recurring, it's best to issue a notice requiring everyone to purchase or recharge cards only at our physical stores."

"Moreover, the recharge card amount shouldn't be too large. Because if counterfeit cards appear again, even if consumers know it's unrelated to us, they will develop resentment. In serious cases, we might even lose these customers entirely."

Chen Yang thought Kong Qiming's made sense. After thinking a while, he added: "Besides limiting recharge cards to our designated physical stores, we should also require binding the consumer's phone number or ID number. That way, once a problematic card appears, our staff can detect it immediately, maximizing loss reduction."

"As for the recharge card amount, we should mainly use thirty and fifty yuan, and before anti-theft technology achieves a breakthrough, the maximum should not exceed one hundred yuan."

"Besides that, to facilitate the after-sales department handling related issues, we must properly preserve the records of card issuance and recharges."

Kong Qiming frowned and said: "Boss, most people who buy groceries at offline chain stores are middle-aged and elderly. The procedure for binding phone numbers and IDs is relatively troublesome; they might not have the patience to cooperate with our work."

Chen Yang smiled and said: "People are always inclined to take advantage, especially middle-aged and elderly groups. Just tell them that the money in the recharge card can enjoy an additional 95% discount on top of the store's existing discounts, and most people will be tempted."

Kong Qiming hesitantly said: "Just a 5% discount would make them move? Boss, aren't you being too optimistic?"

"Just do as I said first. Whether it works, you'll know after a while." Chen Yang, being a reborn person, clearly knew that middle-aged and elderly groups are the easiest to deceive. If it weren't for the security technology flaws in Public Pass Payment Co., Ltd., he would have unhesitatingly launched recharge cards with denominations over one thousand yuan, and even be confident of selling them all.

Although Kong Qiming harbored doubts, he also knew that any plan only yields results after implementation.

Three days later, Xingcheng Public Security, based on clues provided by the deceived masses, finally captured the criminal gang that was selling counterfeit Public Pass recharge cards.

What surprised Chen Yang was that the leader of the team producing the fake cards was not someone from the financial circle. The person merely used hacking techniques to breach the backend server of the card manufacturer for Public Pass recharge cards, then stole the relevant data to copy them.

Moreover, this leader was a former employee of that card manufacturing company, very familiar with its internal situation. Besides Public Pass recharge cards, a large number of other supermarkets and chain store shopping cards were also seized at the scene.

Upon receiving the news, Chen Yang became even more determined to improve payment security technology.