Fake QR code scam nets over 400K yuan

Three men have been arrested for concealing illicit gains after they assisted someone who claimed to be a member of express customer service staff and swindled online buyers out of more than 400,000 yuan (US$58,000), prosecutors in Putuo District said.

The chief culprits behind the telecom scam are still at large, said prosecutors.

According to Putuo District People's Procuratorate, one of the victims, a woman named Zhou who works in Shanghai, received a call from “the customer service center of an express” on November 6 last year. The operator told her that her package had been lost and they would compensate her.

Zhou then added the operator into her Alipay friend list. The operator soon sent her a QR code and asked her to scan it to get the compensation. However, after she scanned the code and typed in the information and passwords of her two bank accounts, the 31,430-yuan balance in the two bank cards disappeared. She then reported the matter to police. 

A man named Liu was cheated out of 106,000 yuan by the same gang just one day before.

Officers targeted the bank account of a man surnamed Yu in Fujian Province where the money ended up. Between November 6 and 8, Yu was told by his accomplice Zhu to transfer some of the money to another accomplice Zhou.

Yu and Zhou withdrew more than 400,000 yuan of cash over three days and gave the money to Zhu.

All the three people have been arrested.