CHINA / ODD
5 college students held accountable for fraud by exploiting app loopholes
Published: Sep 27, 2022 08:07 PM
KFC Photo: IC

A KFC restaurant in China Photo: IC


Five college students in Shanghai were sentenced to prison for making more than 200,000 yuan ($27,854) in illegal profits by exploiting the vulnerability of data synchronization between KFC app and its WeChat mini app.  

In April 2018, a college student in Shanghai surnamed Xu, found that he could get free meals and coupons by switching between the KFC APP and its WeChat mini program when paying the bill. Not only did Xu order his own food in this way, but he also sold the food to others at a low price for profit.

Besides, Xu also told the method to four other students, and they together caused huge losses to Yum China, which owns KFC.

The five were sentenced by a local court to prison terms ranging from one year and three months and two years and six months for crimes of fraud and imparting criminal methods.