App Scams!!!!

Yesterday, I got a whatsapp surprise message from a unknown number.  A link with my phone number was send to me. And it said I'll lose my chance after 30 minutes. I was excited for a second as the link looks very real. But before I click the link, I googled "Whatsapp surprise", and it turns out to be a scam.

There are more and more App scams recently. I saw a news on Weibo the other day. It was about a scam of WeChat. The bad guys hacking the WeChat accounts, especially from overseas students. And they pretend to be the students and try to get some money from the student's parents and. The case in the news was an Australia  overseas student named Benjamin. His WeChat account was stolen and used by the hacker. The hacker told Benjamin's mother that he needed 30,000 RMB (about 4600 AUD) for an extra language course. When his mother try to use voice message, he claimed that it was too noisy around him that he couldn't hear and talk. And ask the mother use text message. Luckily, Benjamin's mother didn't fell for that and get in touch with Benjamin at last. But there were several cases that some parents was worried and transfer the money to the hacker's bank account which they claimed as university's account.

Please be careful and tell your parents and friends that if you need money, you would call them instead of just send them text message and ask for money. Sometimes parents would be very worried when their children are overseas and in trouble. When they couldn't reach them, they might believe many things they wouldn't normally. So be aware and keep in touch with your parents!

What do you think about this kind of scams?

BE CAREFUL OF SOCIAL NETWORKING APPS

There are certain type of apps came out recently could be categorized as social apps, such as Momo, WeChat and so on. 

Take WeChat as an example. WeChat is a mobile phone text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent. It is available on Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and Symbian platform. It has normal functions as much as whatsapp, text messages, voice messages, group message. The special about apps like WeChat is they have a function that you would be able to see people around you who has WeChat and you can send message to them. Once you allow WeChat to use your current location, then other people can see you by "Look Around" function as well. When you go into "Look around", you can choose to view female or male only, or view them all. And you can see the distance between you and other users.

It is fine for people using these kinds of apps to contact their friends, or making new friends, but there always are bad guys out there. Bad guys know you are around, and they could pretend to be nice and chat with you, when you lower your guard, they may ask you out since you're just next to them.

I saw a news the other day. A girl was raped by someone she know from WeChat. They just chatting several times and decide to meet each other. She even doesn't know the guy's name. After they met, she saw a movie with him and had a couple of drinks, then she was raped on the way he drives her home. And she was not the only one.

So we really need to be careful and on the alert. Do not meet someone online so easily or when you don't know them very well. I'm not saying making friends online is bad, but we need to be careful. What do you think?