In an article posted on social media on Tuesday, Beijing police said some scammers used FaceTime to steal money.
In May, a man in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, received more than a dozen calls via FaceTime from someone pretending to be a customer service representative from the technology company Tencent, asking him to download software.
According to police, after the victim responded, he immediately realized that 300,000 yuan (approximately 4.2 million yen) had been lost from his bank account.
Police also warned of the FaceTime option, which allows screen sharing, allowing the person on the other end of the call to see everything on the victim’s screen, including messages, bank accounts, and passwords. FaceTime also allows users to change their name to the official name of a police station or anti-fraud center, which could be used to deceive others, according to online postings.
This can lead to device screens being shared or victims opening strange websites, which can result in scammers taking control of the phone or in the false belief that money will be transferred. Victims may be forced to send money to criminal networks. returned.