Man's life savings stolen with facial recognition while he slept

By Staff Writer | 08 Apr 2019 at 12:50hrs
Facial recognition
A man's life savings were stolen in China by unlocking his phone with facial recognition and accessing his WeChat Pay account, the South China Morning Post reported.

Citing a local television news report, the article stated that the man contacted police after noticing that 12,000 yuan (R25,400) had disappeared from his bank account.

Police said their investigation revealed that the man's roommates unlocked his phone using facial recognition and stole the money.

Both roommates were charged with theft and the funds were recovered and returned to the victim.

While neither the man nor the brand of phone were identified, he was reportedly using a sub-1,000 Yuan device.

A police source described the phone's facial recognition feature as "not very reliable" and said their testing revealed that it would unlock even if your eyes were closed.

The incident is a reminder to take care when choosing to use security measures based on biometrics.

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