After the death of her son, a friend of the deceased approached 74-year-old Ms. Wu, gained her trust, and quietly drained her retirement savings by accessing her mobile payment accounts. The Jianghan District People's Court in Wuhan, Hubei Province, recently concluded this case involving the infringement of an elderly vulnerable person's property, sentencing the defendant to a fixed-term imprisonment and ordering full restitution of all economic losses.
Ms. Wu, now 74, had lost both her husband and her son. In September 2022, she was diagnosed with a mental disorder, and her bank cards were kept in the custody of her sister-in-law. Chen was a close friend of Ms. Wu's deceased son and had obtained the elderly woman's WeChat and Alipay account credentials from her son years earlier. After the son passed away, the elderly woman never changed her account passwords, allowing Chen to retain control of this critical information. Starting in 2025, Chen began actively approaching the widowed Ms. Wu, frequently offering small favors and quickly winning her trust. He then used the excuse of "helping to purchase daily necessities on her behalf" to trick her into completing facial recognition verification, seizing the opportunity to link other associated bank cards to her Alipay account. From that point on, Chen directly used the funds in the elderly woman's WeChat and Alipay accounts for online gambling and personal daily expenses.
In July 2025, Ms. Wu's relatives noticed abnormal transaction records in her account and confronted Chen. Chen admitted on the spot to the unauthorized withdrawals and wrote an IOU promising to repay 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 authorities. By the time the case was uncovered, Chen had misappropriated a total of over 80,000 yuan of the victim's funds.
The prosecution, during its investigation, found that Chen had previously 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 nature.
The court held that the defendant Chen, with the intent of illegal possession, secretly used Alipay and another platform to obtain funds from another person's associated bank card, and the amount was relatively large. His actions constituted the crime of theft. The defendant, without the victim's permission, used Alipay to link the victim's bank card information and used the card in the victim's name to illegally possess the funds therein, which constitutes fraudulently using another person's credit card to carry out credit card fraud, and the amount was relatively large. His actions constituted the crime of credit card fraud. In summary, the court sentenced Chen to 6 years and 1 month of fixed-term imprisonment and imposed a fine for the crimes of theft and credit card fraud, with the sentences combined, and simultaneously ordered him to compensate the victim for all economic losses. The case has now been concluded.
"Compared to telecom fraud by strangers, this type of 'acquaintance crime' is more covert, and elderly victims often find it difficult to detect in time," said Judge Gao Miaomiao, who presided over the case. Gao Miaomiao reminded that for elderly people who are advanced in age and living alone, family members should pay more attention, properly safeguard the elderly person's bank cards, identification documents, and payment passwords, and never easily trust acquaintances or casually complete facial recognition at someone else's request. At the same time, family members should monitor the elderly person's WeChat and Alipay accounts, promptly disable password-free payments, and regularly check account transaction records.
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