A user logs on to the WeChat service on a smartphone in Boao, Hainan province. Tencent Holdings Ltd has started to provide online payment services through the social networking and messaging service. [Photo: Xinhua]

A court in Zhuhai city in South China's Guangdong Province has found a local bank partially responsible for an online theft worth 120,000 yuan (about 19,000 US Dollars), as the bank did not inform the client on his every online transaction.

The case happened last November when Li's account was withdrawn by someone for 41 times without receiving any notice from his bank. And his bank card and USB-KEY are still at his hand.

After an analysis from the collected evidence, the court found that the 41 transfers were managed through quick payment, such as online banking or mobile banking service.

Therefore, this case is quite different from those in the past. Instead of using a fake banking card to withdraw cash from Automatic Banking Machine, they only need to type in bank account number and its pin number to achieve the access.

The court decided that the bank and account owner both should be responsible for the loss.

The major cause of this case is the leak of personal information such as Li's phone number or his account number which the bank didn't know.

However, the bank should on the other hand provide certain measures to ensure a safe transaction environment when their clients make transfers online or on mobile phone. So the bank should assume 20% of the loss as part of the compensation to Li.