THIRTEEN seafood restaurants were found ripping off customers by remotely controlling their electronic scales through calculators, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

    Accompanied by undercover law enforcement officers, the Daily’s reporter bought a tuna at a seafood restaurant in Nan’ao Seafood Street in Dapeng New Area recently. The reporter noticed that when the waiter was weighing the tuna fish on the electronic scale, a woman nearby was pressing a calculator.

    The tuna was sold at 68 yuan (US$10.5) for half a kilogram, and it was weighed at 0.8 kilograms on the restaurant’s scale. Later the officers, who were with the Shenzhen Municipal Market and Quality Supervision Commission, weighed the fish at 0.55 kilograms, meaning the restaurant had charged an extra 34 yuan.

    After the officers raided the restaurant, they found it had proper business licenses and the electric scale being used was accurate, though the calculator was missing. The officers seized the electric scale for further investigation. Later the Market Supervision Administration of Dapeng inspected 108 seafood restaurants in nine areas in Dapeng New Area. 13 restaurants were found remotely controlling their scales to rip off customers. (Zhang Yang)