Microsoft Teams Has Become a Haven for Scammers in China
·2 min read
Compiled by KHAO Editorial
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◌ Single Source
Zhao, a 30-something woman living in Beijing, says she lost over $100,000 in May to a romance scammer who claimed to be a researcher working for Microsoft.
Key facts
The scammers had me register for this app so they could contact me, and they defrauded me of RMB 1.48 million [$220,000]
WIRED analyzed the past 18 months of reviews of Teams on Apple’s Chinese app store, and found that out of 500, 30 percent included explicit complaints about scammers
Zhao, a 30-something woman living in Beijing, says she lost over $100,000 in May to a romance scammer who claimed to be a researcher working for Microsoft
At some point, they were instructed to download Microsoft Teams and log in using credentials provided by the scammers
Summary
Once they switched to Teams, the scammer began promising to build a future with Zhao when they eventually got together and introduced her to a cryptocurrency investment project, which he said would turn a profit much faster than trading stocks. After Zhao began talking about her experience on social media, she says she started hearing from dozens of other people in China who have fallen prey to the same scheme. The victims all describe the same pattern. For years, alleged scam victims have been writing angry reviews of Microsoft Teams on Chinese app stores, some warning others not to download it.