It's a common joke among Westerners that East Asians all look the same.

Well, now it looks like it's been proven true in China.

According to Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation, Yan, a woman from Nanjing, China, was offered two refunds from Apple after her colleague managed to unlock both her iPhone X that had faulty facial recognition function.

It wasn't just a fluke either, as her colleague was able to unlock both devices on every attempt.

The two women are not related to each other.

Twice refunded

According to Yan's account of events, no one believed her when she called Apple support.

So she went down to an Apple Store to prove that the facial recognition software was faulty.

Fortunately, the employees agreed, and she got her refund.

Giving the brand another chance, Yan bought a second iPhone X and configured the software to unlock upon recognising her face.

But it was unlocked yet again by her colleague.

When the phone was configured to recognise her colleague's face, Yan could unlock it as well.

Netizens give their two cents

Translation: Apple hasn't done enough research on the different Asian facial characteristics for their facial recognition technology.

Translation: I can't help but say that these two friends look quite alike.

[related_story]

One in a million chance of fooling the phone

Apple says the chances of an imposter being able to trick the sophisticated system are one in a million, making facial recognition more secure than the 1 in 50,000 chance that somebody else could fool a phone's fingerprint scanner.

However, the company has also said that the facial recognition technology is not for children under 13 as they might look too similar to each other.

It is unknown if Yan has used the second refund to purchase a third iPhone X.

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Top image via Weibo.