A WOMAN was cheated out of 999 yuan (US$145) recently when she demanded a refund of her deposit for using an app-based bike.

The woman, surnamed He, called a service hotline she found online for a refund for the deposit May 21.

According to Shenzhen’s criminal investigation department, the hotline service requested that He receive it on WeChat as the refund service is required to operate through WeChat.

Under the guidance of the hotline service, He sent the WeChat payment code to the service, which promised to send back the refund immediately.

However, she received text message from the bank saying that 999 yuan had been deducted from the bank card which she had tied to her WeChat account.

He immediately called back, but no one answered her call.

According to police, He might have been cheated by a so-called phishing scam, in which the phone number provided on the Internet wasn’t an officially registered phone number of an app-based bike operator’s customer service department.

(Han Ximin)