WeChat official warning: Don’t grab such “red envelopes”

WeChat is undoubtedly the most popular way to send red envelopes, but all kinds of fake red envelopes are also flying around. The WeChat Security Center recently talked about fake red envelopes.

First, WeChat gave an example: Xiao A from Xupu County, Huaihua, Hunan found a lottery event in the circle of friends last year. Unexpectedly, he was very lucky and directly won the reward of "recharge 69.98 yuan to get 110 yuan of phone bill". He immediately entered his mobile phone number according to the process, paid 69.98 yuan, and received the card number and code of the recharge card.

But after getting the recharge card, Xiao A excitedly went to the "recharge website", but failed after trying many times.

He then went to the so-called "dedicated refund channel" to start the refund procedure, but he didn't expect to get a "high amount of compensation" for the refund. He entered the payment password without any precautions and was defrauded of 198.98 yuan again.

In fact, the routine of fake red envelopes is very simple, and you can fall into the trap in three steps:

• In the first step, the bad guys use fake red envelopes as bait to get everyone to share these "red envelopes" to multiple WeChat groups and Moments;
• The second step is to trick people into recharging by offering a chance to win a lucky draw: "recharge XX yuan and get XX yuan of phone credits";
• The third step is to offer high compensation when the recharge fails and a refund is chosen, and continue to defraud by claiming that "a payment password is required to verify identity for a refund."

Recently, the Public Security Bureau of Xupu County successively arrested 12 criminal suspects including Xu Tao, Li, and Zhao, and successfully cracked a telecommunications fraud case involving over 10 million yuan, recovering more than 4 million yuan in stolen money.

WeChat Security Team reminds:

• Be sure to carefully verify any red envelope activities offered by merchants. After opening a real red envelope, the money will automatically go into your change account. Those that do not automatically go into your change account are fake, so don't believe them.
• Those that require you to enter personal information before you can receive red envelopes are almost certainly fake, and those that require you to enter a payment password should never be participated in.
• Legitimate merchants will not have a "dedicated refund channel" nor will they ask you to enter your payment password.

If you encounter these fake red envelopes, don’t hesitate to complain directly:

1. To file a complaint through WeChat client, click on the upper right corner of the article - click on Complaint - select the reason: The webpage contains fraudulent information (such as fake red envelopes) - Submit.
2. Report through Tencent Security Service Platform (110.qq.com).
3. Make a report through the WeChat mini program “Tencent Reporting Center”.

In addition, if you encounter similar fraudulent behavior, you can file a complaint in the following ways:

1. Complain about an individual user: On the user's "Details" page, click the function button in the upper right corner -> "Complaint".

2. Report an external link: Click the external link -> the "..." menu in the upper right corner -> click "Report".

3. Report through the mini program: Search for the "Tencent Reporting and Acceptance Center" mini program -> Internet fraud -> Fill in the report content -> click "Submit".