Beware of Transfer Request from Phone Scammers Impersonating Customer Service Staff of WeChat

2024-06-07

Defrauding Tricks

Recently, the Police have received reports from members of the public about calls from scammers claiming themselves as customer service staff of WeChat. They lured the victims to pay money to apply for “million dollar guarantee” service, or falsely claimed that the victims’ payment accounts had activated such service and fees will be deducted every month should cancellation not be requested, or claimed that such service was about to expire and payment was required for renewal, otherwise the victims’ credit ratings would be affected.

The scammers would lure the victims to download an application containing a Trojan horse, seeking to obtain the victims’ payment details such as bank card numbers and SMS verification codes to steal bank account funds; or the victims would be lured to transfer their savings to specific bank accounts and suffered pecuniary losses.

Members of the public can refer to the steps below for information on “million dollar guarantee” of Mainland WeChat Pay or Alipay accounts:

WeChat Pay account: “Me” – “Service” – “Wallet” – “Consumer Protection” – “Security Protection” – “Million Dollar Guarantee”

Our Advice

• “Million dollar guarantee” is totally free of charge and there is no such thing as “due for renewal”. Any calls demanding payment under the name of “million dollar guarantee” are scams;

• WeChat will not ask users to make transfers;

• WeChat will not call users on its own initiative unless users have indicated their wish to have phone calls from customer services through WeChat app or help.wechat.com;

• The email addresses of WeChat Customer Services are support@wechat.com and support@help.wechat.com;

• Do not believe the scammers’ identities simply by the phone numbers they provide. You are advised to verify their identities by making enquiries to relevant organisations through official channels;

• If you receive calls purportedly from staff of any organisations, you should search the corresponding contact phone numbers on official websites or applications;

• Enter the suspicious URL on “Scameter” or “Scameter+”, the mobile application of “Scameter”, to assess the risk of fraud and cyber security in addition to seeking verification from relevant organisations;

• Remind your relatives and friends to stay vigilant against deception;

• If in doubt, please call the “Anti-Scam Helpline 18222” operated by the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre of the Police for enquiries.