Several users across China have reported that their Meituan accounts were compromised and used to make unauthorized purchases while they were asleep, with charges appearing from distant cities. The victims, located in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Guangdong provinces, reported that their accounts were used to buy meal vouchers for restaurants like "Bull****" and "**Teppanyaki," which were then quickly redeemed. The incidents all involved the Meituan Monthly Pay feature, and all affected users had enabled "no-password payment" for amounts under 500 yuan. Individual losses ranged from over 1,000 yuan to more than 4,000 yuan. Some victims have filed reports with the police, who have issued acknowledgment receipts indicating the cases are under "further investigation." Other victims reported that their cases have not yet been formally registered.
On July 28, a reporter contacted Meituan customer service on behalf of the affected users. The company stated that since the voucher codes had already been redeemed, refunds were not possible. The platform's preliminary assessment suggests that the users' phones may have been infected with malware after clicking on malicious links, allowing remote control to place the orders. To obtain detailed backend information about the fraudulent orders, users are required to go through a judicial evidence-gathering process.
Silent Theft in the Dead of Night
Mr. Quan, a Meituan user from Zhangye, Gansu, discovered that his account was used to purchase multiple vouchers totaling about 2,475 yuan through Monthly Pay around midnight on July 21. "I didn't notice at all until another 1,500 yuan was taken around midnight on July 24," he said. This time, he didn't receive a text alert from Meituan but got a risk control alert from his bank, the Postal Savings Bank of China, which suspected fraud and suspended the transaction. Checking his bank app, he saw a charge labeled "Meituan Special Invitation," prompting him to open his Meituan account, where he found six unredeemed vouchers. He managed to cancel them manually, saving his 1,500 yuan loss from July 24. However, the five vouchers stolen on July 21 had already been redeemed at locations in Beijing, Nanjing, Nantong, and Yiwu.
Mr. Wu from Wuzhou, Guangxi, experienced a more concentrated attack. Between 2:35 am and 2:43 am on July 23, his account was used to generate four orders totaling 1,669.47 yuan for vouchers at a "Bull**** Shop" in Jinhua, Zhejiang. All four orders were paid via Meituan Monthly Pay, and the vouchers were fully redeemed in Jinhua while Mr. Wu was in Guangxi. His refund requests were all rejected by the platform, with the status showing "Appeal Rejected." He filed a report with the local police and received a receipt indicating the case is under "further investigation."
Mr. Xu from Weinan, Shaanxi, had a similar experience. Around 3:30 am on July 12, his account was used for four orders totaling about 1,800 yuan for vouchers at a "Bull****" shop in Xi'an. He noted that he had enabled a small-amount no-password payment limit of 500 yuan, and each fraudulent charge was under that threshold. He only realized the issue on July 22 when he received a Monthly Pay repayment reminder and discovered additional installments. The vouchers were redeemed in multiple cities including Wenzhou, Hangzhou, and Beijing. He reported the incident to the local police, who have not yet made a decision on filing a formal case.
Meituan Customer Service Suggests Phones Were Compromised; Redeemed Vouchers Cannot Be Refunded
On July 28, a reporter contacted Meituan customer service on behalf of the affected users. The customer service representative stated that the platform has a unified compensation rule: once a group-buying voucher is redeemed at a physical store, there is no channel for a refund. To recover their losses, users must file a police report and then use the judicial evidence-gathering process to access the platform's backend data. Regarding Mr. Wu's case, a Meituan Finance customer service representative explained that the platform's backend analysis indicated the victim had previously clicked on a pop-up ad from a suspicious website, causing their phone to black out and be remotely controlled. The fraudulent orders were completed within the user's own login session, making it impossible for the Meituan app to identify the underlying system-level malware or remote control actions, and thus the app treated them as normal account operations. The representative admitted that the platform does not automatically block orders just because they are made during the early morning hours, unless there are strong risk signals like a new device login from a different location or a transaction exceeding the limit.
Regarding refund requests, the representative gave a clear answer: as long as the group-buying voucher has been redeemed at a physical store, the platform cannot issue a refund, even if the victim has already filed a police report. "The only way now is to contact the police to recover the funds. Under no current circumstances can Meituan refund the money, because the vouchers have already been used. Even if the police contact Meituan, we cannot refund it," the representative explained. The representative further stated that to obtain account login logs or complete order backend records, users must go through the judicial evidence-gathering process.
For Mr. Quan's case, another customer service representative noted that after the platform detected the abnormal batch of orders in the early morning, it restricted and froze his account, making it permanently inaccessible. However, the authority to refund the already-redeemed vouchers lies with the order review department, not the account security department. The customer service representative could not guarantee any refund and only forwarded the request for review. The representative suggested that Mr. Quan had likely been scammed and advised him to file a police report promptly, stating that the company would cooperate with the authorities if contacted.
Based on accounts from multiple victims, a reporter found that their phones were all Android-based, and a significant number of them had experienced black screens after clicking on suspicious links. Mr. Guo from Zhumadian, Henan, lost about 4,000 yuan and recalled, "My phone went black, and I had to restart it." Mr. Ling from Foshan, Guangdong, who lost over 3,800 yuan, also reported, "My phone would freeze when I opened an app, then it would go black and I had to restart it."
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