If your card is fraudulently charged, suspend or freeze it and report to police first, then demand compensation from the bank: proving “you made the charge” is the bank’s job

If your card is fraudulently charged, you first need to produce evidence such as a police report and a suspension record. If the bank says you made the charge yourself, the bank must produce the evidence; if it cannot, it has to compensate you. That holds only if you suspend or freeze as soon as you notice. If you delay the suspension, you bear the extra losses that come afterward.

Cost

No cost. As soon as something on the card looks wrong, suspend or freeze it immediately. Keep police reports, suspension records, and transaction notices from the bank. If the physical card is still with you, make a small balance inquiry or deposit nearby to leave a record that the real card was in your hands when it happened. The hard part is not arguing with customer service first; suspend first.

Benefit

Supreme People’s Court rules split “who must prove what.” If you say it was counterfeit-card fraud or online fraud, you go first with evidence. Counterfeit-card fraud means someone copied your card and used the copy. Usable proof includes effective legal documents, where the physical card was during the transaction, where the transaction occurred, account statements, transaction alerts, police reports, suspension records, and so on. Conversely, if the issuing bank or a non-bank payment institution (third-party payment) says the cardholder made the charge or authorized it, they must produce the evidence. After you notify the bank, if it does not verify promptly or does not provide or preserve transaction records and surveillance video, and evidence is lost because of that, the bank bears the consequence of lacking proof. Once liability is established: debit card (savings card) holders may demand that the bank return stolen deposits with interest and compensate losses; credit card holders may demand return of unauthorized overdraft principal, interest, and penalties, and compensation for losses, and courts will not support the bank demanding repayment of that overdraft from you. You may also demand that the bank promptly remove related negative credit records (nationwide, effective 25 May 2021)

Notes

Two situations leave you liable. First, if you did not keep your card, password, or verification codes safe and you were at fault (the original text: failure to fulfill the duty of safekeeping), you bear loss in proportion to fault. So do not tell others your password or forward verification codes (see item 1, prefer phone pop-up for two-factor authentication). Second, if you do not suspend in time and losses grow, you bear the extra part. So the first step is always suspend or freeze, not argue with customer service. Third-party payment institutions follow the same rules. If their marketing promises “pay first, investigate later” in concrete terms, you can hold them to that advance payment. Money you were tricked into transferring yourself follows a different path; see Section 8, item 2 (if you discover fraud, call 110 or 96110 immediately to request a payment stop).

Sources · 1

1. 最高人民法院 (2021). 关于审理银行卡民事纠纷案件若干问题的规定（第四、五、七、十四、十五条）. court.gov.cn/fabu/xiangqing/304771.html