A Dutchman in Shenzhen is trying to get back 220,000 yuan that disappeared from his bank account on October 15, People reports. It has to be established that he wasn’t at fault for the money going missing before the bank is obliged to pay him back.

Card declined

When Deng Ming (alias) tried to make a 240 yuan payment on Oct. 15, his card was declined. He went to check his balance and found that 220,000 yuan had gone missing from his account. He immediately went to the police station and then the bank to report the issue.

A subsequent investigation showed that over a period of 20 minutes during the small hours of Oct. 15, the money had been dispersed into several accounts. This suggests that it was the work of a criminal gang, a captain from Shatou Police Station told the paper.

Identifying who was responsible

Who takes responsibility when both parties are victims? The bank says that if he has been the victim of an elaborate fraud, then it has no right to refuse to pay him back. However, if the investigation finds that Deng Ming had simply been careless with his password, then he has to take responsibility himself.

Deng Ming claims never to have lost a wallet, a phone or a passport, so the incident cannot be the result of his carelessness.

Zhou Xiaoqing of JunZeJun law firm says that depositors have to be responsible for protecting their own bank details. However, according to the Guangdong Provincial Banking Regulatory Bureau, banks pay back the losses of depositors in over 50% of bank card fraud cases.

Upgrading security

The magnetic strips on Union Pay cards are inherently less safe than microchip technology and are set to be phased out.

Also, Deng Ming says that in Europe, if money is being withdrawn from the same card to a number of places at the same time, then the account is automatically frozen. China’s banks have yet to introduce such a policy.

For these reasons, Deng Ming could have a long, bureaucratic road ahead. Good luck buddy.