Australian authorities have warned the public against using cheap and non-compliant USB-style chargers on Friday after a young woman was electrocuted to death while her laptop was still plugged in.

The 28-year-old woman was still wearing her headphones and the computer was still on her lap when she was found at a house in Gosford in April. Burn marks were also seen on her chest and ears, AFP News detailed.

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Police are still looking into the circumstances surrounding the death. The Department of Fair Trading has suggested that a subs-standard phone charger could be the main culprit.

The woman, who was reportedly from the Philippines but had become an Australian citizen recently, had plugged her headphones into the laptop. The latter was being charged through a power socket.

New South Wales Department personnel Lynelle Collins explained that the woman's phone was also connected to a USB-style charger. She also warned people against using their phones while charging and using non-approved chargers.

Collins told AFP that the "charger had failed" because electricity passing through it somehow "connected to her body." However, they still do not know if she was holding her phone to her ear or if she just had it in her hand when she was electrocuted.

Some non-compliant and unapproved USB-style chargers, power boards, and travel adaptors have already been removed from the Sydney market following the death, Fair Trading said. In a statement, commissioner Rod Stowe said those products "pose a serious risk of electrocution or fire."

Sellers of devices that do not comply with Australian standards are punished with a maximum of fine $82,000 ($87,500) and/or two years' jail time for an individual. Corporations, on the other hand, are fined A$875,000.

This is the only known death in Australia potentially caused by the cheap chargers. In 2013, a report from China said a woman was electrocuted when she made a call on her mobile phone which was still charging.

Tagselectrocution, charger, Australian, woman, cheap, phone, chargers, USB-type charger, death