09 December 2023 , 09:44
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For many, it's part of the dining experience to take a quick photo of their meal and post it to show their followers - but for one woman, it proved a very costly mistake.
The woman in China posted a picture of her food on WeChat, not realising that the image had a picture of the restaurant's QR code on the table. And all hell broke loose when the woman was given her bill from the hotpot restaurant in Kunming, southwest China, and it bizarrely came to £50,000 (447,785.97 Chinese Yuan).
The lunch date with her pal soon turned into a nightmare as the woman, who has only been identified by her surname Wang, realised the costly error she had made, reported the South Morning China Post.
Within minutes of her posting the picture, pranksters that she had on the social media channel began scanning the QR code and ordering food to the table. The trolls ordered a staggering 1,850 portions of fresh duck blood, 2,580 portions of squid, and 9,990 portions of shrimp paste, according to a screenshot of the bill. But when the staff at the restaurant saw the ridiculous amount of food, they decided to confirm with Ms Wang whether she actually wanted that much - and that's when she realised her mistake and swiftly deleted the post.
The bill was huge thanks to pranksters (WeChat)Thankfully for her, the restaurant did not make her pay the extortionate bill, and they moved her to another table while ignoring all new orders that came in from that QR code. The staff also said that they tried to track down the time-wasters who had ordered the huge amount of food, but they hadn't been successful.
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Ms Wang shared that it had been a learning curve for her, and she's called for increased awareness of how QR codes can be used maliciously. The restaurant has also changed the way people can use the QR codes, meaning they can only order if they are within a certain distance of the building.
Lin Xiaoming, a lawyer from Sichuan Yishang Law Firm, explained to Chinese media outlet Fengmian News that the orders using her QR code were not Ms Wang's original intention, meaning they were invalid anyway.