Man stole more than $23,000 from his ex-girlfriend by using her phone’s facial recognition

A 28-year-old man, identified only as Huang, manipulated the technology on his ex-girlfriend’s phone to steal 150,000 yuan (nearly $23,600), which he needed to repay gambling debts.

Court documents show that Huang, from the city of Nanning in southern China, manipulated two security features to steal the money: fingerprint and facial recognition technology, according to The Times.

The two were no longer a couple at the time the money was stolen. Huang had borrowed almost $10,000 from her during the course of their relationship and reportedly came over to discuss repayment with his ex-girlfriend.

At the time, the victim was sick, so Huang cooked her a meal and gave her some medicine. Once she had fallen asleep, he used her hand to bypass the fingerprint detection of her Huawei phone, then opened her eyelids to access her Alipay banking application.

After accessing the woman’s banking app, Huang changed her passwords and transferred more than $20,000 of her money to himself. Upon waking up, the woman noticed her money was missing and immediately went to the police.

The district people’s court sentenced him to 3.5 years in prison.

Featured image via Huawei

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