Nanning real estate company customers defrauded using facial recognition

Occurred: December 2020

Customers of a real estate company in Nanning, China, had their properties sold without their knowledge by a dealer who used their facial information to access their bank details.

Customers looking to sell their houses were instructed to verify their identities on the town's official 'Yonje Deng' app. 

The data was then used by an intermediary posing as an employee of Nanning Youju Real Estate to transfer and mortgage the houses and pocket the proceeds.

The stolen proceeds reputedly amounted to nearly 10 million yuan (USD 1.53 million).

The individual was later arrested by the police, and the app updated and made more secure. 

December 2021. A Nanning resident was jailed for stealing USD 23,500 from his ex-girlfriend’s bank account by unlocking her phone with her fingerprint after he had drugged her, and then pulling up her eyelids while she was sleeping to activate her phone’s facial recognition feature.

Facial recognition system 

A facial recognition system is a technology potentially capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces.

Source: Wikipedia 🔗

System 🤖

Operator: Nanning Youju Real Estate; Nanning Natural Resources Bureau
Developer: Alipay
Country: China
Sector: Real estate sales/management
Purpose: Defraud
Technology: Facial recognition
Issue: Privacy; Security