Delete the Fake WeChat on Your Phone!

原创： Sandra Huang GuideinChina 2018-10-04

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Recent news have reported multiple incidents from users being scammed on WeChat in various ways. Some have received voice messages from friends saying that they need to borrow money, while others continue to receive unsolicited advertisements via the app. So what’s the deal with these scams?

Fake WeChat

It appears that those who have encountered such scams are all victim of downloading a fake WeChat appon their phone. Miss Chen, one of those victims, says that her app had been sending her ads on second-hand carsand overseas purchases. WeChat’s real customer service confirmed that they have received a lot of feedback from users all over China about this issue and that they do not push any ads directly to their users. In other words, Miss Chen’s WeChat is unofficial, and the software’s Secure Socket Layer has been hacked.

Photo credit: people.cn

According to Changzhou’s People's Procuratorates, this fake WeChat was initially programmed by The Pelican Company (鹈鹕公司) following a request by an old his customers of the company's founder who wanted a version of the WeChat app for old mobile phones. This software has been installed on a lot of old version mobile phones, with the promotion of two technology companies in Shenzhen.

Photo credit: people.cn

The Safety Departmentat Tencent warns that this fake WeChat app basically bears the same basic functionalities as the original WeChat like texting and voice messaging.

GuideinChina reminds you to double check the WeChat version that you have on your phone. Have you installed the fake WeChat app by mistake? Since WeChat carries the Wallet function which allows you to put in your debit and credit card information, itis best for everyone to make sure that their bank card safety is guaranteed.

Voice message fraud

Other users have reported being scammed via voice messages on WeChat (the real one). Here’s what happened to Miss Sun who witnessed her account being hacked into. The suspect logged into her account and borrowed money from her friend. At first, her friends didn’t buy it of course, so they asked the suspect to send a voice message as proof that it was in fact her. The suspect didn’t get cold feet and moved forward by sending a very short voice message saying “It’s me.” in Miss Sun’s voice, which made her friends believe that it was really her.

Mr.Wei, another WeChat user who was also subject to this scam, reported a hack after the suspect used the same tactic to defraud her friends of RMB 500.

How did they do it?

The voice messaging scam sounds pretty mysterious, doesn’t it? How could the hackers get an audio of their victims’ voice to use against their own friends in order to convince them of the legitimacy of their money requests?

In Miss Sun’s case,the suspect lured her to provide her WeChat username and password by revealing that he could help her buy game credit at a cheaper price. All she had to do in return, he said, was to send an audio message saying “It’s me”.

Photo credit: www.nanrenwo.net

Technically, WeChat users cannot forward a voice message from one thread to another, but there are ways to go around this rule. All you need is a software to extract the audio,which only costs about RMB 60-120. In fact, the fake WeChat we mentioned above can forward voice messages as well - a functionality that doesn’t exist within the real WeChat app.

GuideinChina reminds you that using these software or the fake WeChat is at your own risk and that doing so may lead to technical issues. These scams are always a solid reminder of how important it is for everyone not to share their personal information with they don’t know or trust. If anyone asks you for money on WeChat, we suggest you either voice call or FaceTime them to make sure this isn’t another scam.

Photo credit: www.chinaz.com

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