An old friend of a deceased son gained an elderly woman's trust under the pretext of helping with errands, tricked her into completing facial verification, and quietly drained her retirement savings from her WeChat and Alipay accounts.
The Jianghan District People's Court in Wuhan, Hubei Province, recently concluded a case involving the infringement of an elderly vulnerable person's property, sentencing the defendant to a fixed-term prison term and ordering full restitution of all economic losses.
Ms. Wu, 74, has lost both her husband and her son, and was diagnosed with a mental disorder in September 2022. Her bank cards are kept by her sister-in-law on her behalf.
Chen was a close friend of Ms. Wu's deceased son. He had obtained the elderly woman's WeChat and Alipay account credentials from her son years earlier. After the son passed away, Ms. Wu never changed the account passwords, so Chen continued to hold and control this critical information.
Starting in 2025, Chen began actively approaching the elderly woman who lived alone, frequently offering small favors and gifts, and quickly won her trust.
He then used the excuse of helping her purchase daily necessities to trick her into completing facial recognition authentication, and took the opportunity to link other associated bank cards to her Alipay account.
After that, Chen directly used the funds in the elderly woman's WeChat and Alipay accounts for online gambling and personal daily spending.
In July 2025, Ms. Wu's relatives discovered abnormal transaction records in her accounts and confronted Chen. Chen admitted on the spot to the unauthorized withdrawals and wrote an IOU promising to return the full amount. The family, out of consideration for personal ties, chose not to call the police at that time.
However, by February 2026, the family discovered that Chen was still continuing to use the elderly woman's account funds, and immediately reported the matter to the police.
By the time the case was uncovered, Chen had used a total of more than 80,000 yuan of the victim's funds.
During the investigation, the prosecution found that Chen had already been sentenced to criminal punishment between September 2023 and March 2024 for unauthorized withdrawals from Ms. Wu's bank card funds. This offense constituted a repeat crime with a prior conviction of the same type.
The court held that the defendant Chen, with the purpose of illegal possession, secretly used Alipay and another platform to obtain funds from another person's linked bank card in a relatively large amount, and his conduct constituted the crime of theft.
The defendant, without the victim's permission, used Alipay to bind the victim's bank card information and used the credit card in the victim's name, illegally possessing the funds in the card. This constituted impersonating another person's credit card to carry out credit card fraud in a relatively large amount, and his conduct constituted the crime of credit card fraud.
In summary, the court sentenced Chen to six years and one month in prison, imposed a fine, and ordered restitution of all economic losses to the victim, combining punishments for the crimes of theft and credit card fraud.
The case has now been concluded.
"Compared with telecom fraud by strangers, this type of 'acquaintance crime' is more concealed, and elderly victims often find it difficult to notice it in time," said Gao Miaomiao, the judge presiding over the case.
Gao Miaomiao reminded families of elderly people living alone to pay closer attention, properly safeguard the elderly person's bank cards, identity documents, and payment passwords, and never easily trust acquaintances or complete facial recognition at anyone's request.
At the same time, families should pay more attention to the elderly person's WeChat and Alipay accounts, promptly disable password-free payments, and regularly check account transaction records.
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