Chinese Facetime scams are this site’s name for a broad group of scams that have the following things in common: they are aimed at Chinese-speaking (specifically, Mandarin-speaking) people, they use Apple’s FaceTime, and they inevitably seek money from their victims in one way or another - though identity theft is also possible. (These scams occasionally hit English speakers who do not speak Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect, but this seems to be by accident and doesn’t get very far due to the language barrier - mostly because the potential victim goes “WTF” and drops the call.)

These scams primarily hit residents of China, but some of the scams also target U.S. residents who come from areas that primarily speak a Chinese dialect. They use FaceTime because that service allows scammers to FaceTime the potential victim directly instead of tricking them into joining a group on a different service.

The version most commonly seen outside of China comes from a supposed FCC employee, who informs the victim that their phone number has been associated with a scam number in China, usually registered at an airport. The supposed FCC employee then connects the victim to supposed police officers to file a police report that the FCC needs for identity theft. The fake police officers ask questions, “educate” the victim on phishing, and after “taking the report” run a final check, only to find the victim “linked to crime” - and then require the victim to check in/not hang up/not tell anyone/allow screen recording. The victim is then convinced to pay a “fine” to keep things quiet or similar.

There are other versions of this scam that operate similar to another scam that is also seen in English-speaking countries, where one’s bank account is compromised and money needs to be transferred out to a “safe account” - which of course the scammer owns.

How to protect yourself
Never answer FaceTime audio or video calls unless you know the person. (This is the same advice you should follow in regards to any phone call - don’t answer calls from people you don’t know unless you have a compelling reason to.)

If the caller says they’re from the FCC and reference any identity theft/phishing/scam calls in China, hang up. The FCC would not call a random person - especially not from a service such as gmail or icloud - and tell them about this theft. The scammers are betting on their potential victims not knowing what the FCC is or does. It does not handle this kind of thing.

Always treat “official” callers - government agencies, supposed official call center reps - with suspicion unless you initiated the call.