Microsoft Teams Has Become a Haven for Scammers in China

image via WIRED

August 28, 2026, 6:23 PM

• •A Beijing woman identified as Zhao says she lost more than $100,000 after a scammer persuaded her to move from Xiaohongshu to Microsoft Teams and invest in cryptocurrency.
• •Victims describe a repeated method in which scammers provide Teams login credentials, control the organization account, and later disable access to erase chat history from the victim’s view.
• •WIRED’s review of 500 Teams reviews on Apple’s Chinese App Store found about 30 percent explicitly mentioned scammers, with complaints dating back to 2022.
• •Since February 2025, WIRED found that 71 percent of more than 150 Webex reviews on Apple’s Chinese App Store referenced scams.
• •Microsoft says it investigates abuse and in June added a warning banner for Teams users in China; it also discontinued the personal version of Teams in China.
• •Zoho says it found a limited number of scam cases on Cliq, disabled online payments to Cliq in China, suspended suspected scammer accounts, and plans to end the free version there.

Victims in China say scammers are moving conversations onto Microsoft Teams, Webex, and similar workplace apps before pressuring them into fake investments or other fraud schemes. In many cases, the scammers create enterprise-style accounts for targets, control the login credentials, and later revoke access, preventing victims from retrieving chat records for police. WIRED found large numbers of scam complaints in Chinese App Store reviews for Teams and Webex, while local Chinese authorities and platforms have also warned users about the tactic. Microsoft says it investigates abuse and has added scam warning banners in China, while Zoho says it suspended suspect Cliq accounts and is ending the app’s free version there.

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