Samsung China Online Store Breached, Galaxy S10 Sold For Half The Price

Recently, Samsung China has launched a Trade-Up Program to trade in old phones for new ones, only applied for the recently-released Galaxy S10 phones. When users exchange their current smartphones, iPhone or Galaxy phones, they will get a discount when buying a Galaxy S10 phone depending on the devices they use to trade in.

Accordingly, Galaxy S10e with price of 4,999 CNY (around Rs. 51,400) can be reduced to only 1,999 CNY (around Rs. 20,500), Galaxy S10 at 5,999 CNY (around Rs. 61,700) to only 2,999 CNY (around Rs. 30,800). Finally, the top-end Galaxy S10 + is listed with a starting price of 6,999 CNY (around Rs. 72,000) can be purchased at 3,999 CNY (around Rs. 41,100) with this program.

However, right after the program started in early 16 March, there was an unusual error on Chinese Samsung Mall that customers could buy Galaxy S10 trio with maximum discount without trading in their old devices. Some other Samsung devices are also sold at a much lower price than usual. Discovering this error, many users have quickly ordered the Galaxy S10 trio.

Very quickly Samsung has realized their system has problems. According to Samsung's statement, from 00:00 on March 16, their online store was attacked by hackers. This causes some orders to have abnormal problems and errors in data generation. Samsung announced the case to the authorities and will contact those affected by the hack to remedy the consequences.

Below is the rough translation of the official statement from Samsung China:

"From 0h on March 16, Samsung Mall has been attacked by hackers, so some orders have an unusual problem and errors in the data creation process. We have reported this incident to the authorities. With unusual orders arising at the time the hacker attacks, we will contact the relevant customers, and we apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any queries, feel free to contact the customer service via 400-071-8899.”