Chinese airports are secretly transferring data while charging phones at public stations, an X user claimed on the social media platform. The user highlighted this occurring across five separate charging sessions, raising major cybersecurity concerns about public charging points.
A viral post on X by user starmex, said, "Claude Code found that every free charging station i used in airports copied data from my phone. photos, passwords, banking sessions, contacts. i charged my phone at 3 airports across China and every single station pulled something from my device."
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What Did the Viral Post Claim?
According to the user, travelers frequently rely on free USB charging stations at airport gates. He told, "i travel through Asia a lot for work. my phone dies at airports constantly. i've used those free USB charging stations at gates without thinking about it. everyone does."
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"i installed Claude Code on my iPhone and ran a full device scan while i was still at the airport. plugged into a charging station at the gate and let Claude Code monitor the connection in real time. within 8 seconds it flagged a data handshake...," he added.
He informed that many public charging spots are at high risk of data transfer, at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport on July 2, the user claimed that active Safari sessions, including Gmail and banking application sessions, were copied. Another incident at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport on August 19 allegedly involved access to the phone's photo library and six months of location history.
The alleged incidents included the transfer of 2,840 photographs and contacts during a charging session at Shanghai Pudong Airport on June 14.
Claude Code found that every free charging station i used in airports copied data from my phone. photos, passwords, banking sessions, contacts. i charged my phone at 3 airports across China and every single station pulled something from my device. i travel through Asia a lot for work. my phone dies at airports constantly. i've used those free USB charging stations at gates without thinking about it. everyone does. i installed Claude Code on my iPhone and ran a full device scan while i was still at the airport. plugged into a charging station at the gate and let Claude Code monitor the connection in real time. within 8 seconds it flagged a data handshake that shouldn't exist on a power-only connection. i went back and checked every charging session from the last 4 months: → Shanghai Pudong PVG, Terminal 2 → June 14 → contacts + 2,840 photos transferred → Guangzhou Baiyun CAN → July 2 → active Safari sessions copied including Gmail and banking apps → Shenzhen Bao'an SZX → August 19 → full photo library access + location history for 6 months → Shanghai Pudong again → September 3 → iMessage database copied, 3 years of messages → Guangzhou again → October 11 → clipboard history including a crypto wallet address i copied that morning every station initiated a data transfer the moment i plugged in. none of them were just charging. the scariest one was Shenzhen. whoever operated that station got my full location history for 6 months. every place i slept, worked, ate, and visited. from one 20 minute charge while i was scrolling my phone waiting for my flight. Claude Code traced 4 of the 5 transfers to the same server: → IP → 116.25.***.34 → location → Shenzhen, China → hosting → dedicated server, registered 45 days before my first transfer → total data pulled from my phone → 4.7 GB across 5 sessions what Claude Code did: → revoked every active session on Gmail, iCloud, WhatsApp, and banking apps → rotated every password stored in Keychain → purged all cached session tokens → flagged the crypto address i copied as compromised before i sent anything to it → disabled USB data transfer for all future connections i never lost money. Claude Code caught it before anything was used. but 3 years of iMessages, my banking sessions, and my entire photo library were sitting on a server in Shenzhen for months. buy a $12 charge-only USB cable. it has no data pins. or use a wall outlet with your own adapter. never plug a USB cable from a public station directly into your phone. the full prompt is in the first reply. run it tonight. takes 3 minutes. if you've ever charged your phone at an airport, a mall, or a hotel lobby, someone might already have your data. save it and send it to anyone who travels.
— starmex (@starmexxx) November 2, 2026
The user further claimed that an iMessage database containing three years of conversations was copied during another visit to Shanghai Pudong Airport on September 3. A subsequent session at Guangzhou Airport on October 11 allegedly exposed clipboard history, including a cryptocurrency wallet address.
Technical audits traced the theft to a dedicated local server registered 45 days prior. In response, all account sessions were revoked, passwords and session tokens purged, a compromised clipboard crypto address flagged, and system-level USB data transfers permanently disabled to secure the device.
However, these allegations have not been independently verified, and the post does not provide publicly validated forensic evidence establishing that the charging stations were responsible.
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The incident has drawn attention to a cybersecurity threat known as juice jacking. Public USB charging ports carry both power and data connections.
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