WHEN we share snippets of our lives online, we need to understand the importance of being cautious of what we post online as there are many people waiting to take advantage of any sort of information that may benefit them and unknowingly harm you.
What was supposed to be a fun get-together with a friend over hotpot turned into a financial nightmare after an accidental blunder for a woman in China.
The young woman, surnamed Wang, posted a picture of her dinner with a friend at a hotpot restaurant on Nov 23, according to a report by news portal The Paper.
While having dinner, Wang decided to capture the moment and posted a photo on the WeChat application but only on the Moments page (which could only be viewed by her contacts).
She didn’t realise that the eatery’s QR code was in clear display.
When the bill arrived, she was horrified to find that it came up to 430,000 yuan (RM281,475.50).
As it turns out, Wang discovered that many people who saw her photo decided to place several orders of food using the QR code in the picture, taking advantage of this opportunity in getting “free food”.
According to a screenshot of her receipt, strangers ordered 1,850 servings of fresh duck blood, 2,580 servings of squid and 9,990 servings of shrimp paste.
Following the discovery, Wang immediately deleted her post but many orders for her table were still flowing in prompting the assumption of her photo being downloaded and still being used.
Fortunately, the hotpot restaurant waived off the outstanding hefty balance for Wang and shifted her and her friends to another table and ignored whatever future orders placed for that table through the QR code.
The eatery’s hands were also tied on this matter as they could not track down the customers who made the orders nor could they stop orders for that table coming in.
In the end, Wang took this as a learning experience and called for raising awareness on information security to avoid future incidents like this and ensure others take precautions before sharing anything online.
