Smartphone unlock feature with face recognition system makes owner lost 1,800USD while sleeping

Yuan, a man from Zhejiang, went to the police to report that he had stolen 12,000 yuan (41.4 million dong) in a savings account while he was sleeping.

After the investigation, the police discovered that the culprit was the two roommates of Yuan's room. After pleading guilty, the two said they used Yuan's face recognition system to open the phone when he was sleeping. In the same way, they transferred all the money at the WeChat Pay app in the victim's phone to their account.

Smartphone unlock feature with face recognition system makes owner lost 1,800USD while sleeping Picture 1
Artwork: Internet.

Yuan's phone has a market price of about 1,000 yuan (approximately 3.5 million dong) and features face detection to unlock it. Looks like this feature works not very reliable. The police have tested and found that Yuan's face recognition system can unlock even if the owner is closing his eyes.

Smartphone unlock feature with face recognition system makes owner lost 1,800USD while sleeping Picture 2
Face detection system on cheap smartphones is often easily overtaken.Artwork: Internet.

Currently, almost every Chinese smartphone is equipped with facial recognition to unlock it. However, this feature on some low-cost smartphones can easily be bypassed by 2D imaging by not scanning the iris or 3D scanning.