The heist of the century
A Chinese student, simply known as ‘Xu’, pulled off the biggest mothercluckin’ heist of the century as he managed to order £6,500 worth of free KFC after discovering a glitch in their online ordering system.
The 23-year-old from China was jailed for his crimes and has been sentenced to two and a half years, as well as a fine of £700 over the scheme; his friends who were told of the loophole were also jailed for between two years and 13 months.
Xu managed to scam, literally, buckets of free chicken by manipulating a voucher system for six months. Between April and October of 2018, he generated unlimited free food vouchers by switching between the KFC app and the company’s store on WeChat (China’s equivalent of WhatsApp).
Using this method, he discovered that he could place an order using the voucher but that the voucher itself would still remain in his account.
He then went on to share the winning formula with four friends who are estimated to have scammed a total of £15,500 worth of food before they were stopped – anywhere between £1,000 and £5,200 each.
In an entrepreneurial move, Xu saw the potential to make money at the same time and even sold on some of the meals for a cut-price to his classmates, all while rolling around in £6,500 pounds worth of free chicken, chips and gravy – all for free.
Eventually, the jig was up the five students admitted to fraud but, you’ve gotta give it to them, what a ride. We, of course, in no way condone any illegal activity, but let’s just say we’d also have been pretty stoked to discover such power.
