Ant Financial acts against financial scams

Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial is tackling financial scams by launching a deferred transaction service that help users to freeze suspicious transactions so that no money is deposited into the scammers’ accounts.  

Users should report to the police if they suspect payments are linked to telecom scams, and Ant Financial will use the police report to freeze the transaction process. 

Once the police have investigated and confirmed the payments to be scams, money will be refunded to the victim’s account.

Ant Financial said it is also using its artificial intelligence-based risk control measures to help detect accounts with a high risk of fraud by reminding users before they proceed to pay through its Alipay payment system.

One common scam involves scammers claiming to be law enforcement officers asking victims to transfer money known as a “safety deposit” into their bank accounts or Alipay accounts. 

In 2017 police investigated 537,000 cases nationwide, the Ministry of Public Security said, adding that 300 million yuan (US$47.3 million) were retrieved and returned to the victims.

According to Chinese research agency Analysys International, China’s third party mobile payment transactions hit 40.3 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2018 with Alipay holding 54 percent of the market volume while WeChat Pay 39 percent.