Nodding head, blinking and opening mouth cost Chinese boy and grandfather US$2,800 in online ‘free gaming skins’ scam
- Online scammers rope grandfather of countryside boy into carrying out facial recognition process to pilfer elderly man’s savings
- Latest racket reignites concerns in China over the twin problems of online fraud and child mobile phone addiction
A Chinese boy who tried to collect “free gaming skins” from a live streamer ended up losing 20,000 yuan (US$2,800) to online scammers, reigniting concerns over game fraud and child mobile phone addiction in China.
The 10-year-old, who lives in the countryside of central China’s Henan province and goes by the name Xiaoyu, was tricked into transferring money from his grandfather’s bank account on May 23, according to a report by local media outlet Henan Television on June 8.
Xiaoyu said he was watching a Kuaishou live-stream show by a player in the game Eggy Party, developed by NetEase Games.
The boy was told that by scanning a QR code with the WeChat app, he could collect a free gaming skin, or character appearance, which can cost more than 100 yuan.
After scanning the code, Xiaoyu received an error message saying that the WeChat account, along with all the money saved in the WeChat wallet, would be frozen unless he took measures within an hour.
He was then asked to add a person on the messaging platform QQ to get instructions about the “measures”.