My uncle in Shenzhen told me to stop using WeChat Pay for street food, I didn't listen

He said street vendors in Shenzhen sometimes have QR codes that steal your money, not the real payment link. I was at a night market near Huaqiangbei last month and grabbed some skewers, scanned a sticker on the cart. My account got hit for 300 yuan instantly and the food never came. The guy just packed up and walked away before I could even yell. Has anyone else had this happen with those random vendor codes?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas10517d agoMost Upvoted

I've seen this exact scam in Shenzhen but from the other side, my buddy runs a small electronics stall and he told me vendors actually buy used QR codes from other sellers, the sticker might be from a legit shop that closed down but the code still works to some old account. So you scan thinking it's the cart's payment but the money goes to some random guy who already left town. Happened to a coworker of mine, he scanned a sticker on a phone case booth at Dongmen, lost 150 yuan and the seller just pointed at the sticker like it wasn't his problem. The real trick is these stickers cost like 2 yuan each from scammers who print a batch and slap them on random carts overnight, mix them in with real ones so you never know which is which.

ryan71916d ago

Question whether people are actually losing that much money to this, I've been buying street food and random stuff from these carts for years and never had a problem. Most vendors here in my city use the same couple payment apps and the QR codes are usually printed right on their cart, not some random sticker that peels off. Feels like one of those stories that sounds scary but actually happens to like five people a year.