Chinese Fraudsters Exploit Microsoft Teams to Lure Victims Into Crypto Scams

A Beijing woman lost over $100,000 after a romance scammer shifted their chat to Microsoft Teams and pitched a cryptocurrency investment. The scammer supplied login credentials for a Teams account, lending the scheme an air of legitimacy. Victims across China report losses ranging from $1,500 to $300,000, prompting local police to issue warnings about the app.

The scam pattern consistently involves moving victims from social platforms like Xiaohongshu to enterprise chat tools, with fraudsters supplying login credentials to appear legitimate. Chinese police have formally designated Teams a "fraud-related app," and the platform Maimai automatically flags high-risk keywords such as "Teams" and "Skype" in user messages.

Microsoft responded by adding a warning banner for Teams users in China in June and discontinuing the personal version of the app, restricting access to enterprise accounts only. Reviews on Apple's Chinese app store show roughly 30 percent of recent complaints reference scam activity, with the earliest such review appearing in 2022. Similar schemes reportedly involve other enterprise tools like Webex.