TWO men were detained for sabotaging the QR codes on app-based bikes in Longgang District on Sunday. They pasted their personal QR codes on the bikes for advertising, according to Shenzhen’s news website sznews.com.

A resident, surnamed Wang, tried to use a Mobike near a Metro station in Longgang District at around 6 p.m. Sunday. But after he scanned the QR code of the bike, a personal WeChat account showed up on his phone.

Wang was confused and he tried to unlock another bike, but then he saw two men pasting something on the app-based bikes nearby.

Wang realized that something was wrong and called the police. The two men, both surnamed Han, were then detained by the police from the Henggang Police Station.

According to the men, they were sub-landlords of a rental apartment. They sabotaged the original QR codes on the app-based bikes and pasted their personal QR codes as a way of soliciting tenants for their apartments via WeChat.

According to the police, the QR codes on the 15 Mobikes were damaged by the men. A representative of Mobike visited Henggang Police Station on Monday to show the company’s gratitude to the police. The representative said the repair of the 15 bikes will cost over 1,000 yuan in total.

Both men are being held under administrative detention for five days. The Longgang police said the QR codes on app-based bikes only have two functions – helping users unlock the bikes and register new accounts. If an abnormal webpage shows up on a user’s phone after they scan the QR code on an app-based bike, they should avoid clicking any links or making a payment on the page.   (Zhang Yang)