Return found phones and wallets, and never withdraw money with a found bank card
Keeping another person’s property and refusing to return it can become criminal misappropriation when the conditions and value threshold are met. Using a found bank card at an ATM is more serious: it can be treated as fraudulent use of someone else’s credit card, with up to five years and a RMB 20,000–200,000 fine at the basic level. That offense does not require the owner to bring a private prosecution.
What it takes
A few minutes and no money. Contact the owner or hand the item to police or another appropriate authority.
What you may gain
Civil Code Article 314 requires return of lost property, prompt notification to the owner, or delivery to an appropriate authority. Unlawfully keeping covered property and refusing to surrender it at a relatively large value can bring up to two years for misappropriation, or two to five years for a huge value under the statutory conditions. Using a found credit card at an ATM is classified as unauthorized use of another person’s card. Where criminal thresholds are met, credit-card fraud carries up to five years and a RMB 20,000–200,000 fine; huge amounts or other serious circumstances carry five to ten years and a RMB 50,000–500,000 fine.
Context & considerations
Misappropriation is generally a private-prosecution offense requiring the owner to bring a complaint. Fraudulent use of the found card follows a different public-prosecution route. The precise “relatively large amount” threshold was not verified here. Civil Code Article 317 provides for necessary safekeeping expenses when an owner retrieves property delivered to the appropriate authority.
Research & references
National People’s Congress (2020). Civil Code, Article 314. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml; National People’s Congress (2020). Criminal Law consolidated through Amendment XI, Articles 196 and 270. https://jtgl.beijing.gov.cn/jgj/jgxx/flfg/fl/11033925/index.html; Supreme People’s Procuratorate (2008). Reply on use of a found credit card at an ATM. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/flfg/sfjs/201208/t20120830_47871.shtml.