Recently, the Tangxia Police Station in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, arrested a suspect who stole 10,000 yuan Alipay password red envelopes. Is stealing a red envelope an illegal collar order?
Event recap
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Wang prepared a red envelope of 20,000 yuan for his parents, and he set the password "Happy New Year to my parents" through Alipay. But after his mother received one of the 10,000 yuan red envelopes, the other 10,000 yuan red envelope was "taken" by a stranger.
Alipay password red envelope is a payment method that allows users to receive or send a certain amount of red envelopes by entering a specific password. The user clicks on the red envelope to send the password, fills in the number of red envelopes according to the prompts, selects the mode of luck or average amount, and sets the red envelope password. After that, click to stuff the money into the red envelope, and after the payment is completed, share the password with the recipient to send it successfully.
The police judged that the theft was due to the fact that the red envelope receiving password set by Mr. Wang was too simple, and someone used the password red envelope to set the rules.
On April 9, the police of the Criminal Investigation Brigade rushed to Guangzhou to bring back the suspect Lin, who truthfully confessed how he took away the password red envelope. When he was bored when he was resting in the room, he thought about whether he could grab some other people's password red envelopes, and he tried for a long time but didn't get them, and when he entered "Happy New Year to his parents", he grabbed a large red envelope with a face value of 10,000 yuan. When he saw Mr. Wang's message asking him for a red envelope on the Alipay platform, the suspect Lin always took a chance and did not return the red envelope.
Is it illegal to steal "password red envelopes"?
According to Alipay's "Introduction and Sending Method of Password Red Envelope", anyone who knows the password can receive the red envelope, please be cautious when sharing the red envelope password.
Therefore, some netizens believe that the "password red envelope" is public and should not constitute a crime.
Some netizens also believe that this is a loophole in the rules and should be strengthened.
However, some netizens believe that this move is suspected of unjust enrichment.
Is this an act illegal? In this regard, this reporter also interviewed a number of people in the legal circles.
Lawyer Wen Yunyun:
At present, the rule of password red envelope is to enter the password, and the money is hosted by a third party. Practically anyone can play and whoever guesses can take it. Theft, on the other hand, is actually the purpose of illegal possession, which is to take possession of something that is in the possession of another person for one's own use. In fact, in this case, it cannot be directly determined that the perpetrator of the red envelope received the red envelope knew that the red envelope was sent to a specific person because of the password, and we need to combine other evidence to confirm it.
If the red envelope was sent by Mr. Wang to his parents point-to-point, then the perpetrator obtained the opportunity to guess the red envelope or obtain the Alipay password through illegal means and illegal channels, which may constitute the crime of theft.
However, if it is a normal opportunity to guess the red envelope, and simply guesses the red envelope password and obtains the red envelope, it cannot be determined that Lin has the purpose of illegal possession, then we believe that it does not constitute a criminal act.
In response to Lin's behavior of receiving Mr. Wang's request for a message but not returning the red envelope, if it is really something that everyone can guess casually, it makes sense for her to take possession and not return it. If he is at fault when he sends it himself, the other party can sue for unjust enrichment at most, and he can sue for return.
Liu Yuhang, a lawyer at Guangdong Lingnan (Law Firm):
(1) Whether the "stealing" of red envelopes by guessing the Alipay password constitutes the crime of theft first depends on the subjective will of the parties. The crime of theft requires that the perpetrator subjectively has the purpose of unlawful possession and knowingly steals the property of another person.
In this case, the suspect frequently used Alipay to send and receive Alipay password red envelopes before and after the Spring Festival, and when the victim sent the red envelopes, the suspect kept operating the passwords to try to receive red envelopes that did not belong to her. It can be seen that the suspect had subjective malice in this case and had the purpose of illegal possession. Of course, if the user of the password red envelope simply misuses to receive a red envelope that does not belong to him, it should constitute "unjust enrichment" rather than the crime of theft.
(2) Issuing red envelopes with a specific password is simple and fun, but it also comes with certain risks, especially if there are no appropriate restrictions and warnings.
First of all, Alipay, as a service provider, has the responsibility to clearly identify the risks that may be faced by using password red envelopes on its user interface. For example, users should be clearly informed that the password they have set may be easily guessed by others, and as a result, the red packet may be taken by an unexpected recipient. This not only helps to increase user security awareness, but also reduces the cost of misunderstanding features.
Secondly, in order to increase the gameplay and control the risk, Alipay should consider setting an upper limit on the total amount of red envelopes and the number of times a day to publish password red envelopes. This measure can prevent large amounts of funds from being easily circulated through this method, which can not only reduce the risk of illegal acts such as fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, etc., but also prevent users from suffering significant economic losses due to large capital losses. This restriction is also in line with the usual requirements of financial regulation and contributes to a safer and more sustainable digital payment environment.
At present, the suspect Lin has been taken compulsory measures in accordance with the law, and the 10,000 yuan red envelope has been fully returned to the victim, and the case is being further investigated.
Editor: Li Geli
Source: CCTV news client