Man Pulls Up Sleeping Ex-Girlfriend's Eyelids, Steals $23K From Her Phone Using Facial Recognition

A man in China has been jailed for stealing around $23,500 from his ex-girlfriend by pulling up her eyelids and using the facial recognition feature of the banking app to access her accounts while she was asleep.

The man, identified as Huang from Nanning in southern China, has been sentenced to three years and six months in jail after he was found guilty of stealing money from his ex-girlfriend's bank account in December last year.

The 28-year-old man used the woman's fingerprints to unlock her phone while she was asleep and lifted her eyelids to activate the facial recognition option of the banking app before transferring $23,500 to his account, New York Post reported.

The man's ex-girlfriend, known by her family name Dong, said Huang had requested to meet her to discuss paying back $9,400, which he had borrowed from her while they were dating. Huang came over to the woman's apartment and offered to cook a meal for her as she was unwell. However, he mixed some medicine in her dinner, which caused her to fall asleep, Ladbible reported.

Huang was addicted to gambling and needed money to pay off his debts. When Dong was asleep, he took the opportunity to unlock her phone and transferred the money through Alipay, an online payment platform that uses facial recognition for accessing the account. Huang also changed the passwords of her bank account, Next Shark reported.

Dong realized the fraud only when she received a message from her bank informing her about the fund transfer. Huang was arrested in April 2020 and was found guilty of theft by using secret methods to steal someone else's property.

In addition to the jail term, the court has ordered Huang to pay a fine of $3,000.

Last week, an elderly man in India was duped by a fraudster who transferred around $13,000 from his bank account after convincing him to share his bank account details. The suspect approached the 71-year-old man and forced him to share confidential details under the guise of verifying his SIM card.