What If You Accidentally Sent Money to A Wrong Person on WeChat

In Zhongshan city, Mr. Huang proceeded to transfer the large sum of RMB 87,500 to his cousin '海阔天空(hǎi kuò tiān kōng)'. After which he quickly shifted his focus back to his day to day affairs. Until the cousin followed up the next day confirming she had never received the money that Mr. Huang has transferred over to her the prior. But was it really her?

In a moment doubt, Mr. Huang doubt checked and realized that he did, in fact, transfer the RMB 87,500 to someone else bearing the exact same name.  '海阔天空(hǎi kuò tiān kōng)" No matter how many times Mr. Huang called the stranger via WeChat voice or several phone calls, the line beeping until, Mr. Huang was officially blacklisted.

Photo credit: 中山网警

Mr. Huang tried everything. He first began by relentlessly texting the stranger directly after seeing his phone number on that contact's WeChat account to initiative a discussion around the negotiation of his returning the money. After multiple attempts, the only message that was sent back read "You've got the wrong person!" But Mr. Huang didn't give in and keep calling him, unsuccessfully.

Unsure of where to go from here, Mr. Huang turned to the public for help. On May 15th, the police advised Mr. Huang to sue in court.

The Second People's Court of Zhongshan City said that in order to move forward with this case, it was necessary to know the true identity of the WeChat user whom he had mistakenly transferred money to. Failure to do so meant that they were unable to accept this case.

On July 3rd, the media spread the news about Mr.Huang's unfortunate situation and his failed attempts to receive help on multiple accounts.

On July 6th, the unknown user finally added Mr. Huang on WeChat at following those last initiatives and apologized to Mr. Huang for not accepting his request sooner. He promised that he would return the money as soon as possible.

on July 16th, the WeChat user transferred RMB 87,500 through Alipay back to Mr. Huang.

According to the media, the WeChat payment support team also followed up with Mr.Huang and guided the police to solve the case by litigation. The WeChat payment platform is now willing to cooperate with an investigation whenever the police intervene.

The bottom line is: if you transfer money to the wrong person and are unable to have that person return it to you immediately, WeChat advises the following:

A similar case the People's Court of Guangzhou's judicial decision rule that the wrong receiver was asked to return the payment back to its sender. Because people receive illegal interests without legislative authority, the affected person has the right to ask for their own interests back.

The People's Court also reminds us that one should always return the illegal money when encountering such 'free lunch' to avoid bearing legal liability.

The WeChat payment group stated that as soon as you realize that you have mistakenly transferred money and are unable to negotiate with the receiver, you should seek help from a court of law. Meanwhile, users can up 95017 or search ' Tencent customer service (微信客服小程序)' on WeChat for support. 

"In order to protect clients' privacy, customer service will try their best to assist both parties," the WeChat payment responsible person said.

How to use Tencent customer service (微信客服小程序)?

Editor: Crystal H

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