Nanning, China - Facial recognition is dystopian enough as it is, but one Chinese man's crime proves the technology may be even more open to misuse than previously thought.

As reported by The Times, a 28-year-old who has only been identified by his surname, Huang, transferred himself 150,000 yuan ($23,500) from his ex-partner's bank account after illegally scanning her finger and her face to unlock her phone and payment app.

He met with Dong, who was also only identified with her surname, in December, and pretended that the meeting was to talk about repaying the 60,000 yuan ($9000) he owed her, which he had allegedly used to finance his gambling habit.

Since Dong was sick on that day, Huang cooked her a meal and helped her with her medicine, and after she had eaten, taken her medicine, and fallen asleep, he actually pulled up her eyelids to activate facial recognition and access her phone!

When Dong woke up and checked her phone, she quickly noticed something was wrong – suddenly having 20 grand less on your account is a pretty big red flag. She notified the police, who quickly discovered that it was Huang who had stolen the money from her.

The man has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, and slapped with a 20,000 yuan ($3000) fine.

It's all a quite scary cautionary tale of how biometrics like face ID can be pretty easily abused, and how no security technology is truly secure as long as other people are involved.