Look out for ‘lucky money’ scams on WeChat during Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year holiday is nearly upon us, and you know what that means: the giving and getting of millions and millions of dollars in digital red envelopes (the traditional Chinese hongbao). It’s sometimes referred to as “lucky money.” Through WeChat, you can send your friends and family members virtual cash, but you can also participate in giveaways from companies or even within your friends circles.

That doesn’t mean everything you see on WeChat’s on the up and up, though. Don’t get your holiday started off on the wrong foot by getting scammed. As the holiday approaches, China’s police remind you to avoid these six kinds of red envelope scams:

1. Red envelopes requiring you to input personal information. If you have to put in your state ID number and your bank information, it’s probably a scam. One woman, for example, won a 200 RMB red envelope and input her banking information to claim it, only to discover it was a fraud and more than US$1,500 had been transferred out of her account.
2. Red envelopes that require entering your password. This is a phishing scam to get access to your accounts, not a genuine giveaway.
3. Friend group giveaway contents. You don’t have to strictly avoid these, but be cautious. The police say that often, the giveaway sums are tiny and they’re just a way for users to try to attract followers.
4. Red envelopes with high payouts. WeChat red envelopes are limited to a maximum of RMB 200 (US$30). If you see prizes of more than that being advertised on WeChat, you can be sure it’s a scam.
5. Bait-and-switch red envelopes. Read the fine print carefully. Some scammers can make their envelopes look very legit, but words like “receiver” and “sender” get switched around so that you end up sending them a red envelope when you thought you were receiving one.
6. Sharing-focused red envelope giveaways. Be cautious of these. If it requires you to follow someone and share a link to enter a contest, the whole thing could just be a scam to gain followers.

In short: don’t believe things that sound good to be true, and stick to people and companies you know and trust when it comes to sending and receiving red envelopes this holiday.

This may be the year of the monkey, but you don’t want to spend the holiday feeling like crap because you fell for some WeChat “lucky money” monkey business.