Recent surge in LINE account hacking incidents is causing concerns not only among people in Taiwan but also in the Southern California overseas Chinese community. According to LINE’s official statistics, the number of cases reported to customer service for account theft in March this year increased by 80% compared to February, with main tactics including phishing links, misuse of phone numbers, and stealing login credentials through the computer version.
On the 9th of this month, a prominent overseas Chinese leader in Southern California had his LINE account hacked by intruders, leading to his friends and family receiving messages asking for money or assistance in “voting for a friend’s daughter.” Some individuals were cautious, immediately calling the person in question to verify or simply ignoring the messages. However, others failed to notice any irregularities and followed the hacker’s instructions by gradually providing their account and password details, eventually losing control of their own account.
Yang Lijing, police secretary of the Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, warns that vigilance should also be heightened for platforms like Facebook and other communication apps. She emphasizes the “Three No’s” principle: “Do not click on unfamiliar links, do not enter personal phone numbers, and do not provide authentication codes.” Scammers continuously come up with new tactics, often using reasons like “voting for pets or children” or “urgently needing money” to lure users into entering their account information on fake websites to gain login access.
Scammers may also use social media platforms under the guise of work or events to manipulate victims into providing their LINE verification codes, binding their phone numbers to a new account, or using malicious QR codes to log into the computer version of the account. Once an account is successfully stolen, hackers impersonate the owner to borrow money from friends or send more phishing links, expanding the scope of fraud.
Yang Lijing suggests that users can utilize LINE’s latest “re-login” feature to forcibly log out hackers and preserve chat records when detecting abnormal account activities. If unable to log in, users should follow the customer service’s “do not log in and continue operation” process to report the incident to prevent further losses.
If your LINE account is compromised, using the “re-login” feature will prompt a verification process. Upon successful verification, the login procedure will proceed. If unsuccessful, an “error” notification will appear; clicking “delete” at this point will remove all LINE-related data stored on “this device” and cannot be recovered.
Through the “re-login” feature, your account will be logged out from other devices, and the chat interactions carried out by scammers using your account during the theft period will still be visible in your chat records. Thus, after using the “re-login” feature, there is a possibility of encountering messages that were not sent by you.
Yang Lijing reminds that scammers often use time pressure to coerce victims into quick responses, stating that “pausing to think and verifying repeatedly is the key to fraud prevention.”
She further explains that after criminals obtain personal information, they might sell the data on the dark web or send fraud messages widely to borrow money from friends in a victim’s contact list. If your LINE account is hacked, immediately revoke the “allow login from other devices” permission and change your password. If the password has already been changed, visit the LINE official website (
https://contact-cc.line.me/tw/?continue_without_login=true
) to fill out the “issue feedback form.” It is also advised to promptly inform family and friends not to respond or provide information to the impersonating account.