Abstract:
According to Wired, fraudsters are using enterprise chat applications such as Microsoft Teams and Webex to trick Chinese victims into transferring large amounts of money, triggering a large number of complaints. Ms. Zhao, a woman in her 30s living in Beijing, said she lost more than $100,000 (approximately 670,000 yuan) in May through an emotional scam, also known as a pig-killing scam. The scammer claims to be a Microsoft researcher. He initially struck up a conversation with Ms. Zhao on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, then asked to move the conversation to Microsoft Teams and proactively provided her with a working account and password.
"I didn't think much about it at the time because I had used this application before. And since it was developed by Microsoft, I somewhat trusted it." Ms. Zhao said. She asked that only her last name be used for privacy reasons.
After switching to Teams, the scammer began to promise that they would build a future with Ms. Zhao when they finally met, and introduced her to a cryptocurrency investment project, claiming that it would make money much faster than stock trading. Ms. Zhao said she was so excited about the opportunity at first that she even took out loans from multiple banks to invest more money.
The fraudster then disappeared with all her money. Since she could no longer log into the Teams account that the other party asked her to use, she was unable to provide the police with chat records.
Ms. Zhao shared her experience on social media. She said she had been contacted by dozens of Chinese victims who had suffered the same scam. It is said that their losses ranged from US$1,500 to US$300,000 (approximately 2.02 million yuan), and only one of them said that they recovered part of the funds by tracing the recipient's bank account.
The scammers' routines described by the victims were exactly the same: at some point, they were all asked to download Microsoft Teams and log in using the account and password provided by the scammers. This technique has become so common that some local public security agencies in China have publicly issued warnings, clearly naming Teams as one of the tools used by fraudsters, and some even describe it as a "fraudulent app." Last year, Maimai, a Chinese platform similar to LinkedIn, told domestic media that if the system detects high-risk keywords such as "Teams" and "Skype" in private messages, it will automatically send anti-fraud reminders to users.
For years, users suspected of being victims of scams have left scores of angry comments on Microsoft Teams in domestic app stores, with some even warning others not to download it. "Wired" analyzed Teams user reviews on Apple's China App Store over the past 18 months and found that out of 500 reviews, 30% clearly stated that the complaints were related to scammers. The earliest comments directly mentioning the scam date from 2022.
"The scammer asked me to register this app to contact me, and then defrauded me of 1.48 million yuan (approximately US$220,000). The police have opened a case," one comment in January this year read, "This is undoubtedly a 'pig-killing plate' scam. Beware of scams, this is a painful and expensive lesson!"
Microsoft says scammers often use trusted brands and communication platforms to carry out social engineering scams. Steven Masada, global head of Microsoft's digital crimes unit, said in a statement to Wired that as these methods continue to evolve, the company "investigates reports of abuse, takes action against accounts that violate our policies, and continues to strengthen protections to identify and block fraudulent activity."
In June this year, Microsoft began displaying a general warning banner to Teams users in China, reminding them to be wary of common scams and to be cautious when sharing sensitive information. Microsoft also stopped the Teams personal version service in China. Currently, the service is only available through business accounts in China.
On Chinese social media, people have also reported encountering similar scams involving other enterprise software applications, including Webex, a video conferencing platform owned by Cisco, and Cliq, a workplace communications app owned by Indian software giant Zoho. According to an analysis by Wired magazine, since February 2025, 71% of more than 150 reviews of Webex on Apple's China App Store mentioned encountering scams on the platform. Cisco did not respond to a request for comment.
Zoho spokesman Sam Wunderl said the company had seen "a small number of scammers using the Zoho Cliq chat tool to deceive victims." The company said it discovered the suspicious usage through an internal investigation. As of August 27, Zoho has shut down the online payment function of Cliq in China, suspended all accounts created by suspected scammers it identified, and plans to stop providing the free version of Cliq in China in the future.
How to use Teams to cheat?
Based on dozens of experiences shared by victims on Chinese social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, scammers appear to be looking for new targets wherever they can. They pose as recruiters looking to hire, potential tenants contacting landlords, Tinder dates, or overseas buyers looking to source products from Chinese factories.
Fraudsters take advantage of Teams' enterprise features to create accounts for victims and send pre-prepared login credentials. Since the scammers control the accounts, they can deactivate them after the scam is over, causing the victim to lose access to their chat history. These chat records could have been used as evidence.
To explain this unusual account arrangement, scammers may tell victims that they are using a work device that can only install specific apps, or claim to have created a private Teams account just for two people to chat.
Later, Ms. Zhao discovered that among the other victims who contacted her, some met the same fraudster who defrauded her. One of them shared his Teams login credentials with her. This time, Ms. Zhao pretended to be a new potential victim, hoping to induce the victim to reveal more information about how her scam worked.
She asked the other party why she had to use Teams instead of WeChat, the most commonly used chat app in China. The scammer claimed that he was participating in a work project and his colleagues could see his WeChat messages, so Teams was "like a secret base for the two of us."
He said that the account provided to Ms. Zhao was "used by project team members to contact their families during the project."
"Can I ask a little question? Does my account number 'joy20706905' have any special meaning?" Ms. Zhao asked, referring to the username provided to her by the scammer. "This account is automatically assigned by the system when you purchase software from Microsoft." the scammer replied.
Ms. Zhao said that when she was deceived in May, Microsoft Teams did not remind her that her conversation with the scammer might be risky. It wasn't until she spoke to the scammer again in August that the app started displaying a banner that said: "Do not share confidential information or your screen with strangers. If you see anything suspicious, please report it."
Why Teams?
In many ways, Microsoft Teams is an ideal tool for Chinese fraudsters. It's available in China and has advanced features such as screen sharing and remote control, potentially giving fraudsters further control over a victim's device. What’s more, it’s a formal workplace communication app developed by a trusted multinational technology company.
The same situation applies to Webex. Tan Chenxin, a Chinese software engineer living in New York, said he almost encountered a scam earlier this week: someone called and claimed to be working on a case with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Chinese law enforcement. The other party asked him to download Webex and enter a video call to discuss the matter.
"I checked Webex and found that it was developed by Cisco, the world's leading network security software provider," Tan Chenxin said, "I happened to know Cisco, so I convinced myself that it should be fine."
Fortunately, he realized it was a scam in time and hung up the phone before transferring the money. Tan Chenxin said that he could not find a convenient way to report the scammer account to Webex.
Compared with Chinese chat apps, which have struggled with investment scams for years, Western platforms appear ill-prepared to combat such issues. For example, when apps such as WeChat and Xiaohongshu detect keywords related to investment and payment, they will frequently prompt users with fraud risks, even in private chats. Even when "Wired" chatted with fraud victims on Xiaohongshu, the victims' stories of how they were deceived repeatedly triggered risk warnings.
Comments